Star Crossed Living
by ChapterEndsHere
Summary: Cross Country Letter AU. What happens when multiple cultures are united in Germany and head to Canadia? Well I'm not sure but they seem to be having fun with their rather huge new family.
1. Please Exit the Plane

The second part to the Cross Country Letter alternate Universe though I suppose it can be a stand-alone of sorts please note this is a LONG story still being roleplayed between me and Oliver's Cupcakes involving the main pairings PruCan, DenAme, and GerIta.

We're on our third google doc now due to lag from the 20k+ word counts.

The normally noisy airport was actually rather quiet as the tired passengers flooded off the planes to gather their luggage. Matthew bit his lower lip slightly as people unknowingly pushed the Canadian around, his near violet eyes a bit frantic, as he scrambled over to the luggage area, mumbling out multiple sorrys and pardons as he went along, to grab his bags pulling them close as he headed to find Kumajiro. Normally he wouldn't have brought the canine along but it was him or an overprotective American brother who'd threatened about twenty or so times, though Matthew lost count after the twenty-third threat, while Matthew had been on the phone to 'slaughter that damn Prussian if he hurt his brother in the slightest'. Needless to say for once in Matthew's life he'd wished Alfred had ignored him like he always had instead of pitching a fit over the idea of Matthew visiting a stranger in

Though he'd also refused to allow the German to come visit them in Canada.

Tucking his head close as he walked Matthew shifted his heavy coat to the other arm silently fixing a button on the red plaid shirt he'd been wearing. As the plane ride had gone on despite the other passengers complaining that they'd been freezing for him it'd gotten far too hot on the plane. This forcing the Canadian to abandon his heavy fur lined jacket for a plaid button up and white sleeveless shirt.

Sighing with relief as his eyes landed on Kumajiro's cage pulling out the large canines collar and lead. He hadn't told Gilbert about the dog coming with him given the fact it'd been a last second choice made by his brother, so that if something happened he'd have protection. At this point however he'd begun to worry about the fact Gilbert had stated they owned 3 other dogs, though Kumajiro was a giant softy around other animals, he wasn't sure about the German family's canines. Letting the canine slip out he headed along to find a corner to sit down in sliding down the wall to sit tucked into the corner near the entrance with a loud yawn slipping earbud in turning on his old mp3 player. It wasn't long before his dog stretched out across his legs to guard over it's tired owner.

Rubbing his eyes, Gilbert quite literally stumbled into the airport. The day had not begun so well. The night before, he'd set an alarm for the purpose of waking him up on time to greet his Canadian friend. Naturally it was pretty early, and dark, so he ignored the loud music as skillfully as if it were a school day. He drifted awake just 20 minutes before he had to arrive, suddenly realizing he needed to leave, and fast. So he rushed his breakfast and getting ready in general, and the results were not pretty.

Here he was, a very tired Prussian with uncombed, stark white hair, tired red eyes (they were brightly lit nonetheless, he was rather excited), and wearing a very mismatched outfit consisting of green sweatpants and a bright blue tank top in an airport at.. 2 in the morning? To put it simply, he was not exactly prepared. This, however, did not stop him from standing on his tiptoes, attempting to find Matthew in the meager crowd. "What am I looking for again?" he murmured under his breath. "Blond, violet-blue eyes, stray curl..." He let out a sudden gasp of exclamation when he pinpointed the person who was probably who Gilbert was looking for. He could only see his head- too many dang tall people- but the sleepy blond seemed to match the description he'd been given and shown. "Matthew!" He called out softly, having a strange conflicted desire to both get Matthew's attention and not wake him up. He actually looked kind of cute when he s- Gil, you're tired, not drunk. Shut up and move. Pushing his way through the crowd, he made his way over to Matthew, mouth opening in surprise when he noticed the enourmous white dog draped across the Canadian's lap. He was not often scared by animals (or anything in general, really, he was too awesome to be scared often), but this was one large mutt he was not willing to mess with. This was coming from someone who teased his brother's golden retriever, German Shepherd, and Doberman like those expressionless palace guards. I should not worry about Matt ever getting mugged or kidnapped or even murdered for that matter..

Lifting it's head from his owner's lap the canine growled faintly, fur slowly starting to rise in faint aggression of having someone approaching his sleeping owner, before the growl caught in it's throat head tilting to stare at the Prussian quietly as though processing who he was looking out his tongue soon lolling at as the canine returned to a state of relaxing and slobbering slightly. Kumajiro may not have been the best guard dog in the world, as Matthew had stated 'he couldn't tell a cat from a beaver' even showing a picture of the large dog trying to play with a wild beaver last winter, but he'd spent enough time staring over his owner's shoulder when he'd replied to messages, or when Matthew had left a picture open on the computer on day, to recognize the only albino his owner had ever spoken to. For that matter the only person Matthew had spoken, well typed, to on a near daily schedule. Lowering his head slightly the dog's gaze darted over the German before the growl started back up in a more playful manner. Seconds ticked past before the canine began to bark, practically lunging to stand up and pulling against the end of it's leash.

As though someone had just blown a airhorn in his ear, or well woken the giant dog that'd been in his lap, Matthew's body jerked letting out a slightly startled shout of protest, trying to pull Kumajiro back to keep the canine from lunging for the Prussian in play. It was clear that he honestly didn't see Gilbert at first, in too much of a panic trying to restrain the 100+ pound ball of white fur trying to tackle the Prussian. Casting a glance around he pushed himself to his feet pulling Kumajiro close with a slight sigh. His body was slouched slightly as he rubbed his eyes the hand holding Kumajiro grabbing blindly to secure around his bag.

Looking up after a moment he froze when his eyes landed on the albino Prussian. "Ah…" His voice paused glancing around where he'd fallen asleep before at Kumajiro. "...Hello?" His voice was a lot quieter than over the phone, where he'd been normally shouting over the havoc of his household. It was clearly no joke that thanks to his voice people forgot about him, he was silent for a moment looking the male over with a raised eyebrow, "Did you forget?"

Gilbert jumped back slightly at the dog's sudden- very sudden, in fact- movement, but quickly steadied himself. He had to strain himself a little to hear; it surprised him to see how quiet Matthew's voice really was, but he went on thinking like Classic Gilbert Beilschmidt anyway. Glad to see I'm not the only tired one. Now let's see, I could answer like a normal person or... "Now that's rather offensive of you, assuming I forgot just because I'm wearing an outfit that could win the Worst Planned Outfit of the Year award. And to answer, no, I didn't forget you, I instinctively shut out the sound of my alarm. I mean, come on, can't expect me to wake up at two AM to loud German rock music and think, 'oh, need to go to the airport.' This is not normal." He paused for a moment when he realized how rude he sounded. Ordinarily he wouldn't care, but.. "Sorry 'bout that. Like I said, I'm just a bit tired. And rambly. Also I'm talking loudly in sarcastic English in the middle of a German airport." He cast a quick glance around. It was true, he was getting a few strange looks. Naturally he just grinned back at everyone, casually petting the top of Kumajiro's head (which he didn't even have to stoop down to do.)

"Right then, it seems we've gotten this far with little to no complications. So I guess we should get going. Got your stuff?" Gilbert paused again. "Need any help with it?" He was uncharacteristically polite this morning; whether it was because he was tired or something else was up for interpretation. Nonetheless, he was offering help and if any mortal was awesome enough to be deemed worthy of the great Gilbert Beilschmidt's assistance, they'd better accept. Or at least that was the way it worked in his head most of the time. During the small, slightly awkward pause, he yawned; not as obnoxiously as he could have but not a cute yawn either. Why he was considering the attractiveness of his yawn he'd probably never know.

Matthew froze at that glancing at Gilbert quietly for a moment with a startled expression on his face, before he was suddenly moving his hand to mute a faint, almost impossible to hear at that, giggle that broke loose. His shoulders shook faintly with the noise instantly causing the curl on his head to bounce slightly, defying every known law of gravity with an almost practiced ease as it normally did. Biting his lip slightly to stop the sound he shook his head, "If that's as offensive as you get when you let your mouth run without your brain being able to catch up well… I think this will all go over fine. At least I can hope." The idea of Gilbert thinking that that little outburst would seem to be rude, or even a bit offensive, amused Matthew. After growing up around Alfred the small statement from Gilbert didn't sound all that offensive. "I'm sorry about," The word about sounded a lot closer to 'aboot' then about thanks to his accent, "the accusation but it did look like you'd forgotten honestly… Though you could win a worst dressed contest. But calling a Canadian offensive? What has the world come to? Oh and I'm so sorry about Kumajiro, it was a large, 100 pound lazy canine or a 130+ American football player who's actually taking the take to time to notice me just to hate you."

Straightening his back as he stretched the male yawned covering his mouth with his forearm slightly before snatching up his other bag looking at Gilbert, "No thanks I've got it-" He cut off when he was staring straight over the German's head glancing down slightly covering his mouth to stop a slight laugh though his shoulder shook faintly for a second before stopping, "Oh… You're… short. I'm so sorry I laughed but… I just thought you'd been about the same height a second ago…Verzeihenv Sie?" The male tilted his head hoping the use of the German phrase would help fix the mistake. Though it was slightly softer sounding, read; a lot softer, compared to a German's accent and voice. Tugging at his shirt in a slightly nervous fashion the male held his coat close quietly watching Gilbert from behind it quietly with a innocent expression. His glasses still sat crooked from his hassle to get up and control Kumajiro.

"I'm glad," Gilbert announced in reply. "Offending Canadians in general is not awesome in the least." He gave Matthew, whom at the moment was at eye level with him, a cocky grin. "No problem with the dog, he just surprised me. I'm sure West's dogs'll get along with him just fine. I guess a fluffy dog is better than an annoying brother any day, right?" He paused as Matthew straightened up and furrowed his eyebrows together, tilting his head back slightly.

The expression on Gilbert's face was priceless, plain and simple. It was an insane mixture of surprise, pure shock, disappointment, and a cross between mock and heartfelt emotional injury. The reaction was less due to what Matthew had said than for the hundredth time embracing the fact that there were a lot of people in this world taller than him, many of which were probably cute Canadians- Gilbert. Shut the hell up. Just stop thinking. No thoughts allowed before 9:00 in the morning. The albino shook his head to clear it. "Nah, it's fine. I'm, eh, used to it. I used to be really tall to everyone and then we all went and turned fifteen and then woosh." He made a dramatic swooping motion through the air with his hand, arcing up above his head. "Everyone figured 'Hey, let's keep growing and leave the awesome guy in the dust.' Honestly. It just means my awesomeness is denser." Gilbert seemed quite pleased with this interpretation, and perhaps it was best to leave it at that. "Okay, if you've got your bags then I guess we should go. Maybe you could learn a bit more German while you're here. Your accent's a bit soft right now."

Gilbert turned to lead the way out of the airport, subconsciously walking more on his toes than on his flat feet to increase his height. He was almost fully awake by now, rejuvenated by the conversation, so he was able to navigate to his (rather poorly parked) car quite easily, with limited stumbling and only one incident where he slammed head-first into a sign. "You know what I just realized?" he said out loud, turning back to Matthew. "Since you can't fly a car across the ocean, you're literally like gonna have your own personal chaperone the entire time you're here. That's frickin' awesome in my opi-" The Prussian was broken off by his own yawn. "Alright then.. don't listen to me talk. Just.. yeah." Fumbling in his pocket for a moment, he pulled out a key, unlocking and opening first the trunk and then the doors. "Just put your stuff into the trunk and we can go.. 'stuff' does not include Kumajiro. He goes in the car. Listen to that. Ahem. Should I really be driving right now?" He laughed a little as he sat in the drivers seat, waiting for Matthew.

Matthew shook his head slightly, attempting not the laugh at the expression on the tired Prussian's face. Honestly he'd never found height to be a big deal given the fact Alfred and their father were both slightly taller than him, despite the fact most people they ran into were a bit shorter. It'd never crossed his mind that Gilbert had been shorter than him. Watching the overly dramatic hand motions he just followed him in silence listening quietly to the small ranting about how apparently being shorter just made his 'awesomeness more dense' however that would work. "I'm glad you think they'll all get along. Dad and Alfred about forced the poor thing to go with me. They still haven't adjusted to the idea of me visiting. Though I really do doubt my accent will get any harsher. It's kinda stuck this soft I think." Resting a hand over his throat slightly he couldn't resist but to laugh faintly under his breath as he watched Gilbert walk and attempt to look just a bit taller.

Every few seconds of them walking though he'd visibly wince as it dawned on him that a half-asleep, though he looked a bit more awake by now, Prussian was about to drive them in a car, down a road, with most likely other people driving on said road. It didn't help that right than about nothing the man was saying made any sense, less sense than it normally did and had rammed into a sign head first instead of ducking. "Yeah… I think I'll be fine walking around instead you know… don't worry about driving…" The male shuddered slightly recalling rumors of the about wreck of manner of driving eastern countries had compared to the western.

Settling his bags into the trunk he opened the back door to let Kumajiro jump in nearly freezing solid jaw falling slightly at the comment, "Now you've got me a bit concerned… Are you really all-right to be driving? I could have gotten a later flight you know. It wasn't like I had to get on the first plane out of Canada." Biting his lip the male paused at the passenger door staring at it in Silence for the longest moment, "Can we not make jokes about poor driving after you parked like this?" Getting in the Canadian buckled his seatbelt almost instantly hiding up his coat slightly just able to see over the fur lined edge on the neck.


	2. This is Your House?

Perhaps Gilbert really shouldn't have been driving, most likely because he was slightly hysterical at this moment, breaking down in a flurry of silent laughter. "That's probably a good idea," he agreed, "No more poor driving jokes. But trust me, we'll be fine. I've navigated this car through a crowded highway- don't ask why it was crowded at one in the morning, I don't know either- when I was pretty drunk, because my buddies were drunker and our destination was pretty far away from the beginning of our journey-... I literally just called that a journey. I am a picture of intelligence.. though not sarcastically, I'm the embodiment of awesome. Thought I'd remind you of that."

Finally ending this bit of his ramble, Gilbert clicked the key into the ignition, starting up the car. " We'll be fine," he assured Matthew again as the Canadian buried himself deeper in his coat. He moved the car backwards and out of it's lousy parking job, out of the parking lot and into the road. "No casualties so far," he grinned sarcastically as they pulled into the meager after-2 AM traffic. "Except perhaps my dignity in being tall at some point in my life." They drove in silence for a few minutes, not much to talk about (and the mindset that it was safer to keep Gil's concentration on one thing), until the albino had to skid to a stop as a car pulled out in front of them at an intersection. "Seriously?! I thought I was the tired one! You're drunk, go home!" This was followed by a more than embarrassing string of German curses and insults, a lot of hand waving, and sticking his head out the window to glare at the now slightly frightened-looking and sobered up driver (who had also skidded to a stop and was soon on his merry way.) He glanced over at Matthew. "Uh.. sorry you had to see that?" he chuckled embarrassedly, scratching the back of his head. "Let's hope the rest of the way is less than eventful.."

Luckily enough, not much else happened, and they managed to arrived at Gilbert's home without further incident. "Willkommen in meiner bescheidenen Wohnung," he grinned as he pushed the door open, stumbling out of the car to walk towards the house. He paused for a moment to wait for Matthew, glancing back and wondering again (and out loud) if he needed any help with his stuff.

Matthew frowned slightly glancing around the car with a nervous expression that remained basically glued in place until they had pulled into the house allowing the canadian to relax. In reply to the welcome though the Canadian yawned, rather loudly for such a quiet male, stretching out once again and looked at the Prussian with a half serious half sleepy and amused gaze clearly not all that mad, though if the male could even get angry was still a bit of a mystery since he'd never actually shown any hint of even getting past annoyed, "I meant that thing about the whole walking places thing till you can drive like a sane person. German road rage is not fun to listen to honestly. Though really Gilbert you coulda gave the guy a break, it was a accident." He shook his head with a slightly amused expression slipping out of the car after the Prussian. Walking around the car he opened the door and watched as his dog charged over to sit by Gilbert's feet barking at the male in hopes of treats or anything similar carrying a box of dog treats Matthew had thrown in the back seat with him carefully looking at Gilbert calmly shaking the box slightly to rattle the treats around.

Heading for the trunk Matthew slipped a earbud into on ear turning on his mp3 player. Overall the male had two large travel bags that were rather packed full, a smaller travel bag that Kumajiro was clearly insanely happy to see his owner pull out, and a book bag that he handled with a bit more care than the other bags. "I hope you don't mind if I borrow the kitchen at some point. It may be a be… Canadian but I brought pancake mix…" Pausing he looked up, "And if you say you have pancake mix… trust me it's not enough." Stepping around the Prussian he headed to wait at the door a calm expression falling into place hiding the hints of the ale being tired, already well aware he'd need to stay awake so he'd actually sleep that night and not end up too jet lagged.

Gilbert grinned, unlocking the door and pushing it open to the dark house. "Just gimme a sec here…" He fumbled for the light switch before the room immediately lit up, causing him to squint his eyes in an uncomfortable wince. "Here we are, then." The door opened up to a small pathway in between the wall on the right and the back of a black leather couch on the left. The entranceway led to a large kitchen if one walked a few more feet, but turning left at the entrance to the kitchen would lead into the main part of the living room, with a table at the side of the couch, a smaller couch by the window and a flatscreen TV and leading off to a short hallway. To the right of the entranceway was a staircase leading to the second floor. "My room and Ludwig's room, also the guest room, are up there," he nodded, motioning to the stairway.

"You can put your stuff up there now, I guess," he continued, rambling in spite of himself. "Also pancakes are good. Really good, in fact. I usually end up with cereal unless Ludwig decides to cook something or those Italian guys come over and make pasta. Well, usually only one makes pasta, the other grumbles and yells about 'German potato bastards.' You can imagine which one I like better." He chuckled to himself. "Back to stuff. I should probably wake Ludwig up.. his dogs are nice enough but they're guard dogs and they'll bark if he's not-"

The Prussian was broken off by the dogs in question. There was a fierce thumping on the stairs and three big- not quite as big as Kumajiro, but there were three of them- dogs entered the room, a doberman in the lead with a golden retriever and a german shepard at the heel. There was a flurry of barking as Gilbert bravely tried to hold back all three dogs at once. "Do- down- ow, Berlitz that hurt- Aster, your mouth is right by my ear, quit the fracking barking- Blackie, you're not supposed to kil-"

"Stehen Sie nach unten! Sitz!"

Gilbert sighed with relief as all three dogs froze in their tracks, ears pricked at the sound of a deep German accent coming from the stairway. Berlitz, apparently the doberman, made his way to the foot of the stairs and placidly sat down, not at all the dog he'd been fifteen seconds ago, and his comrades followed to greet the blond scratching their ears and muttering to them in German. "That's my brother," Gilbert declared with a grin as he stood up with an apologetic shrug. "And his dogs. They only understand commands in German, but I'm tired so I forgot, and they don't listen to me very well any way. Their master is Luddy and that's how it works for them. I'm fine with Gilbird, honestly."

Matthew watched the interactions quietly before looking around the house with a completely shocked expression. Turning around slightly he bit his lip in a nervous manner holding Kumajiro close on his lead."You… My house is pathetic compared to this…" Matthew wasn't poor, no he had a middle class at the least of a family, but with only three people they'd found a large house would never do for the tight knit group. At first Matthew had been listening calmly as his eyes adjusted to the light but now that he could see clearly the male looked a bit startled. "How… Why-..." He bit his tongue slightly in favor of focusing on holding Kumajiro back from taking off to explore. "...No wonder you have such a large ego Gil…" It'd become a slightly ongoing joke for the canadian to kid about Gilbert's pride in being awesome even going as far as saying that he got less awesome every time he'd make a slightly rude comment or boast about himself for long periods of time, though over time it could alsco be made clear that Matthew would hate leading the conversation, often favoring letting Gilbert talk for long periods of time. It'd be lucky if he'd chie in a input before the topic changed about thirteen times.

"German?..- Oh yeah. Sorry must have slipped my mind where we were…" Glancing at Ludwig he paused going quiet tapping his fingers together and absent mindedly looking at the floor as though it'd suddenly became insanely interesting. It was very slowly starting to settle with the Canadian that he was now in Germany, not at home with his family or across the street. At that moment he was hours away from home for the winter break. There was no going home, no backing out. Grabbing the treat box from Kumajiro he handed one to the large canine watching the dog practically collapse in the doorway with no clear intention of moving now that it was laying down and had had a treat. 'This is going to be a long break.'

Sighing faintly he lifted his head to glance back between the brothers settling right into a almost startling silence, as though any second even the faint sound of his breathing could melt into the background and take the Canadian with it. Over letters and the phones it'd be hard to perfectly imagine what they meant by a 'blend-in type of character' but in person it was a bit clear how Alfred and everybody just forgot he existed.

"Nah, we get that a lot," Gilbert reassured him, shaking his head. "I-" He was interrupted by his brother. "We needed to buy a place big enough to house his massive ego." Shooting an angry glare at Ludwig, Gilbert continued what he'd been saying. "I've got a pretty interesting group of friends, and they come over a lot. A ditsy Spainard with a crush on that grumpy Italian I mentioned earlier and a flirty Frenchman with a crush on basically everyone he meets. They're good guys, really.." He trailed off into the awkward silence that followed, glancing around nervously. Things never ended well when three people and three dogs were alone at three AM in complete silence with nothing to do. Gilbert could personally say he had experience with this.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" he finally asked, putting but a small dent in the tension of the last minute. "Matthew, I think we both know you shouldn't sleep 'cause of jet lag and stuff, and I'm not leaving my guest to stay awake for like six or seven hours by himself. I'm obviously way too awesome to even think of epic that." Gilbert paused, trying to think of what to do next. "We could eat something, or maybe play a videogame, or bug my friends over Skype.. There's an endless world of possibilities." He swept his hand through the air, grabbing Matthew around his shoulders like he was some internet meme. "Stuff to do. Stuff to do everywhere."

Rolling his eyes, Ludwig turned back to the stairs. "Well, I am going back to sleep. Have fun. Behave. And before you ask, Matthew, yes, it's necessary to tell my older brother to behave." The three smaller dogs in the room followed their owner loyally back to his bedroom, leaving Gilbert alone with Matthew and Kumajiro. He glanced awkwardly around the room, plunged into another silence. That was when he realized this was happening, Matthew was going to be at his house for the winter break and had come here by choice, had flown hours away from his cozy home in Canada to come hang our with Gilbert. "Right then.." Gilbert said again, seperating from Matthew and looking up at his face. "Whatcha want to do?"

Matthew raised an eyebrow staring at Gilbert's arms with a silent and slightly confused gaze before looking around ignoring the movement for now. Like always the Canadian seemed more than content to remain as silent as he could soon slipping past the German to go put his stuff away, "I'll be right-" He cut off hearing his phone go off turning away to answer it. Only a few seconds passed before a rather hyper voice echoed through the phone.

"What's up bro-hah?! Have the Germans kidnapped you yet?" There was a brief pause before Matthew opened his mouth barely able to squeak before the voice kept going like it had only a few moments to relay the message it had, "Yeah, yeah, yeah awesome bro. I need to talk to your Prussian or whatever boy friend. Not like boy friend but a male friend… Unless there's something we need to talk- Wait is that why you were so excited to go over there and he was so excited to have you go…?"

"...I… Alfred please stop talking already you shouldn't be allowed to think out loud you know…" Matthew handed the phone to Gilbert turning a slight bright red and looking ready to faint even at his elder brother's statement, though Alfred had resumed his rambling without even hearing his siblings statement, "If he says something racist or idiotic just… Ignore him. I think he got dropped as a baby. Multiple times." Grabbing his bag the Canadian headed to the guest room leaving Gilbert and Kumajiro where they were, the canine staring at the phone with a startled look the American loud enough to be heard 10 feet away without a speaker phone on. "So Gilbert I need to tell you something very important. No hockey. No hockey and beer. Just don't let it happen. He may look weak and peaceful but… Well if he causes damage I'll pay to get it fixed but.. Don't bother his hockey matches if you let him watch hockey."

Matthew set the bags down in the room looking around the area quietly still confused about being in such a large house. Sitting down he leaned back soon half asleep given the chance to even relax.

Rather surprised Alfred would call right now- was he GPS tracking his brother or something?- Gilbert held the phone up to his ear. He soon thought better of it when Alfred began to talk again, thinking it better to hold Matthew's cell a few inches away from his head until he could give some input to the conversation. "No hockey? What makes it so important?" He asked, genuinely curious as he leaned back on the counter. How on earth would hockey cause a quiet, harmless guy like Matthew to cause any damage Alfred would have to pay for? He should probably at least pretend to agree so that he wouldn't make Alfred hate him any more than he did.. wait, had he referred to Gilbert as Matthew's boyfriend earlier? No time to think, he had to answer. "No beer and hockey? Okay, guess I'll take your word for it, but.. That's no beer and hockey at the same time, right? Beer is kind of incredibly important because it's awesome. I mean, the awesome taste of the stuff almost brings awesome tears to my awesome eyes. It's truly an important thing." He stopped talking then, thinking maybe he shouldn't be allowed to think out loud either.

Bored because of the lack of movement caused by being on the phone, Gilbert wandered quietly up the stairway as he talked. Rather than going into his own room, he decided to check how Matthew's unpacking was doing. He found the Canadian in the well-lit guest room, half asleep on the bed. Matthew lay sprawled out, arms crossed over his chest with his mouth slightly open to allow him to breath, making that ever-present stray curl job up and down with the rise and fall of his chest. "Damn, that's cute.." he muttered under his breath, forgetting that he was on the phone. For once he didn't attribute it to his tiredness that Matthew was being adorable. Even if he did exceed Gilbert in size. _Speaking of cute things, I should go get Gilbird, _the Prussian thought to himself.

"No hockey at all. Listen to me on this that guy will smash the television in a heart beat, we're talking faster than I can eat a burger, if his team starts to lose. You gotta remember he is still canadian and when you include hockey it's like all hell breaking loose. This would be like, enough of a fit to raise the devil and un-dead bro-..." The American cut off hearing the commenting about something being cute eyes narrowing at the phone, "What exactly is being cute? If he's sleeping he might not wake up till tomorrow. He got on the plane after his hockey game to get to Germany." His voice was lined with a slightly, read; very, annoyed almost growling noise. It wasn't that he was fully over-protective of the younger male, but he never wanted to hear comments about his brother over the phone, people could at least hit on a man's sleeping sibling when they had actually hung-up the call. "Just… Keep Mattie safe alright? I don't want him to get hurt. I know he says I don't notice him but sometimes he's happy alone… I think this is the first time he even considered leaving home for anything outside of his family. He protested against getting a pen-pal like the mere idea would kill him," The American's voice had relaxed slightly, "He hasn't been the same since ma's death so just… If he get's hurt Kumajiro will go straight for your vital regions bro."

Kumajiro stood at that charging upstairs to launch onto the bed with his owner. The canine moved and shifted around barking faintly until he could lay down facing Gilbert with a high-held head screaming alertness for once in the time since he'd met him compared to his gentle owner the dog could have been a soldier watching Gilbert with a new alert attitude. Matthew merely stretching out tired limbs to take over the entire bed where Kumajiro wasn't at, his glasses laying on the side table beside a book about hockey.

"Dea-" Gilbert's question trailed off, which was probably a good thing, considering Alfred might get really angry or really emotional if he finished it. The reason he quieted down, though, was the huge dog entering the room as if he'd known. "Matt's dog either has super hearing, awesome intuition or you were planning this all along. So.. Alfred, hate to break it to you but it's 3:15 in the morning right now, so I'm going to sleep. Worry not, your brother is in safe hands. Unless Francis shows up. I can restrain him, though. Probably." Thinking better than to straight up hang up on Alfred, he left the phone on as he turned the light off, softly closing the door as he left the guest room for his own.

The albino collapsed on his bed, sending up a bouncing kind of springy sound, and kicked back to make himself comfortable. Maybe dressing so quickly wasn't such a bad idea; he didn't have to change as it was already comfortable enough to sleep in. Scratch that, it was hot. He dropped his phone down on his desk to change into something more comfortable, completely forgetting that he was still connected to Alfred as he lazily cast the sweatpants onto the floor, put shorts on and falling back onto his loud bed again. "Sleeeep..." He muttered to himself as if chanting a spell to initiate it. He could practically hear his brother telling him to pick up his laundry. _I'll do it in the morning.._


	3. Pancakes and Languages

Matthew slipped down the stairs quietly at around five a startling slightly at the sound of the doors opening. Tumbling back slightly he caught himself on Kumajiro with a faint squeak of surprise violet gaze darting to watch the entrance as a slightly bouncing Italian entered the house, read; actually bouncing, freezing when his gaze landed on the Canadian. It dully clicked in Matthew's mind that Gilbert had mentioned two Italian's that visited often, though he hadn't expected anyone to be awake at this time. Casting glances nervously at each other they both glanced anywhere but at the other person trying the mute faint giggles as realization settled in.

"Eh… Ciao?" The blonde blinked slightly as the other seemed to light up even further at the simple Italian word, despite the Canadian accent lining through it.

"Ve~! Buongiorno! I'm Feliciano Vargas~! You must be Matthew, Gilbert mentioned something about you coming to Germany, but why are you up this early I thought you just got in not long along? Though even Ludwig should be asleep right now so… He's asleep isn't he? Please say he's asleep! I wanted to cook breakfast for them but Ludwig always seems to beat me to waking up somehow I don't unders

tand it at all. I wake up pretty early though I do take a nap soon after I get up…" Frowning very briefly the Italian looked up and down the halls with a faintly, read; insanely, panicked expression at the thought of Ludwig beating him to waking up yet again.

Biting his lip he stood up petting Kumajiro silently looking at the Italian, before pulling out his bag full of pancake mix eyes slowly lighting up as the Italian looked up starting to smile slightly. "Wanta make pancakes? We can surprise both of the boys with them." Both males broke into slight giggles heading to the kitchen. It only took half an hour for pancakes to start stacking up around them, Matthew somehow managing to keep the area slightly cleaned. Despite being focused on cooking the two seemed to settle into a very content conversation switching between Italian and French, with the occasional laugh slipping past or Kumajiro barking as the clock neared about seven in the morning.

Gilbert yawned, stretching his arms out as he sat up in his bed. _There's something important I need to do today.. Something different from most of the ti-_"Matthew!" He actually exclaimed it out loud, suddenly hoping the taller male was downstairs or asleep so this sudden cry could not be heard. Within a few minutes he had dressed, for the most part, at least in something that would not cause him to look like he deserved the Worst Planned Outfit of the Year award, and was started downstairs in a flurry of yawns and eye-rubbing. He was not at all expecting the sight that greeted him in the kitchen.

Matthew and Feliciano sat idly chatting at the kitchen table, surrounded by a questionable amount of pancakes, and each wearing one of the rarely used aprons they kept around simply because of Feliciano's existence. Gilbert bit his lip; not only had the person who Ludwig claimed he was not in love with but made it so obvious and the person Gilbert had wanted to meet in real life for the longest time gotten up early to make them pancakes, but they looked so.. _Cute_. It was impossible not to consider this, this very moment in time, a single moment of perfection in all things that existed to please Gilbert's awesome sense. "Guten morgen," he greeted finally, not having wanted to interrupt their conversation but honestly very hungry. "I get the feeling you guys don't plan on eating this all on your own?"

Answering his own question, he pulled a plate out of the cabinet, taking a seat beside Matthew and taking a few (read: at least ten) pancakes for himself. After drizzling maple syrup over the fluffy stack, he cut into it with a fork, taking an experimental bite. His eyes widened in pure adoration. "These have got to be the best pancakes I've ever eaten, birdie," Gilbert declared, shoving another bite into his mouth just as Ludwig entered the room. "Morning, West," the German's albino brother greeted without looking up. He was a little too busy shoving pancakes into his mouth. "You're going to try these whether you want to or not."

It was obvious he was overdoing his older brother privileges, but whatever.

Glancing up at the entrance the two male's tilted their heads curls bobbing slightly, Matthew's glasses sliding down his nose slightly and Feliciano nearly dropping his fork. Blinking slightly they turned back to face each going about their conversation as though they were still alone both tossing a pancake to Kumajiro when the canine laid at their feet calmly. It was shockingly Matthew who picked back up the conversation in a very fluent Italian, only stuttering at a few parts having learned from an old teacher one year. "...Come ho detto mio e Alfred erano cottura e ha finito per andare a tirare la farina dallo scaffale. Lo sgabello su che è in piedi scuote e scivoli di sotto di lui e farina finisce per rivestimento di me. La notte prima aveva guardare qualche orrido americana scary movie e pensa che io sono un fantasma. Mi picchiava con un cuscino fino e citare 'ha notato il ciglio di ragazza' sulla mia voce e ho dovuto smettere e vedere se va bene."

Both males paused before breaking into slight giggles curls bouncing slightly. It was almost as though they'd known each other for years instead of just meeting that morning. Shaking his head Feliciano managed to mute his giggles to speak again, "Si dovrebbe vedere quei due quando preoccuparsi di tollerare altri semplici esistenti. Hai incontrato cani di Ludwig a proposito? Sono così carini! A meno che non stanno cercando di attaccare Gilbert che è... Qual è l'altro con la cosa dell'uccellino?" As they carries on the conversation the two seemed to entirely forget the German siblings. One could swear they'd be able to see signs in bright neon pointing at the reading 'Uke 'girl' chat' and similar things as they went along with their conversation occasionally slipping into more French dialect, clearly causing Matthew to smile slightly. Casting a glance up they glanced between the two brothers and the food, "...They aren't going to eat themselves and we're pretty sure they won't eat you."

"Ich fühle mich so verlassen aus .." Gilbert sighed sadly, staring at his pancake as he took another bite.

"Sie machen uns Ausgestoßene mit ihren seltsamen Sprache."

"Einverstanden. Wir müssen gemeinsam in der deutschen Bruderschaft Band."

"Bist du sicher, dass du nüchtern bist?"

"Ja."

The two broke into a short fit of laughter as they realized how strange it was for two completely different sets of people to be speaking two incredibly different languages in the same kitchen surrounded by pancakes. "We know that," Gilbert finally declared in response to Matthew. "Engage joint German eating."

And that is how both ended up with fifteen pancakes on their plates.

Soon enough, Gilbert was relaxed in his chair, sighting contentedly after being able to eat all those pancakes. "I haven't had a good breakfast like that in a long time," he decreed happily. "You guys are very skilled pancake makers. My advice: start a restaurant. "Matt and Feli's Pancakes: Catering to Italians, Canadians and Germans alike since 2014. Perfect." He glanced at the table, then looks up at Ludwig. They seemed to share a single thought in that moment. Both of them stood up in one smooth motion and began to gather up the plates and dishes scattered throughout the kitchen. "Sie sind wirklich chaotisch", Ludwig sighed to his brother. "Ja .. wir müssen dann lehren t aufzuräumen. Aber komm schon, wie lange sind Sie nun bekannt, Feliciano? Sie sollten ihn jetzt gelehrt haben."

"Halt den Mund."

Within ten minutes of skillful German cleaning, the kitchen was spotless and the two brothers were sitting again at the table. "What are we going to do now?" Gilbert asked the rest of the party pointedly. It was true, they'd managed to be smart enough _not_to make any plans for Matthew's visit, and this was why they were sitting at a table at eight o clock in the morning. "Well, Matthew's the guest of honor, so does he have any ideas?" Both Ludwig and Gilbert turned to look at the Canadian.

Matthew's whole body seemed to freeze at the question. Lifting his head to look at the brothers he grew quiet once again clearing his throat nervously at the sudden focus on his starting to flush a faint red use to being ignored by people, not having all the focus on him so suddenly. Glancing at Kumajiro he briefly debated bolting from the room, even casting nervous glances to make sure the canines leash had been where it'd been the night before. Glancing between each other the Canadian and Italian froze Matthew's gaze darting between Feliciano and Ludwig with a slightly knowing smile.

Not even a second passed before Feliciano cast a glance between Matthew and Gilbert before pointing to his head slightly where Gilbird would normally sit at though making a point. Despite the faint smiles both males looked away slowly starting to turn red and ducking their heads to their chests, "Ah come on you're reading this all wrong…" The two froze when they said the same looking up, "Am not!"

Kumajiro glanced up rolling his eyes, even the dog completely understood this new '_language_**' **was one even years of practice couldn't understand. Both males paused glancing to the side chewing at their lower lips in a slight pout, "Are to." Both shook their heads curls bouncing slightly as they sighed.

Freezing they glanced at the two Germans going silent again, both males practically attempting Matthew's infamous vanishing act before Matthew spoke up, "Why don't you two decide? That'd be great I mean I'm not too picky and I'm sure Feliciano wouldn't mind whatever you two pick either." They were both casting their eyes to the floor now, though Feliciano noticeably leaned against Ludwig with a slight pout still in place while Matthew scanned the room in silence for something interesting to focus on for the moment.

The two brothers watched in a rather confused sort of awe at the whole (almost) silent exchange. This language they were speaking purely through body language fascinated the both of them, not to mention Gilbert thought their strained stutters were cute. He had no idea such a simple suggestion could trigger so much from the two. It seemed both of them knew something about the other that they themself (and Gilbert and Ludwig) didn't realize. Finally he had to speak as he was prompted to pick something. "That was.. Odd. But I honestly don't have any ideas right now. Awesome ideas are hard to come by, even for someone as awesome as I am."

"We could go do something in town," Ludwig suggested, half sighing as if annoyed by Feliciano's rather cute antics. "There's bound to be something to do there. We could also get beer somewhere. And no, Feliciano, you don't have to drink beer if you don't like it." Gilbert could've sworn he saw his brother crack a smile at Feliciano, but then again, it could have been his imagination. "If that's what we're doing, let's get going," Gilbert prompted, standing up.

"We should walk," Ludwig suggested- no, ordered- as they stepped out onto the porch. "It'd be kind of odd to make anybody sit in the back seat." Gilbert nodded in agreement. "Come on, Matt! Feli, you too! We have stuff to do." They started at a brisk pace down the sidewalk, quite warm in the late summer air despite how early it was. There wasn't much to be seen in Gilbert's opinion, just the regular things he saw every day in his city, but he supposed it was different for the two foreigners. The street was quiet at first, but as they neared the main part of town they encountered more strangers and familiar faces passing on the sidewalk with them, more cars speeding past with some sending up a gentle spray of rainwater from the recently wetted streets. Gilbert showed no sign of the exhaustion he'd felt last night, or rather earlier this morning, as he was just as cheerful and obnoxious as ever. "Where first..." he murmured to himself, almost asking the other three males with him.

Glancing after them Matthew shook his head clearly remembering a **'**_no drinking_**' **rule his father and brother had brought up before he'd left, well no drinking and hockey but drinking always led to hockey as far as Matthew was concerned. Though perhaps what they didn't know couldn't hurt them he supposed. Nowadays Matthew wouldn't watch Hockey in public unless there was beer or vodka or anything similar involved in the equation. As bad as it sounded he got pretty angry and sometimes he would even flat out snap for a few moment if his team was losing a game or made a mistake. Casting a glance ahead at the two german siblings he fell in beside Feliciano at a casual walk about 10 feet behind them. Looking around quietly he stayed silent rather talked out from his slight bout of excitement that morning, causing Feliciano to ramble on about little to nothing to be exact. Tuning out the rambling slightly he glanced around smiling a slightly content smile for once managing to fall a bit behind even Feliciano to look around the area curiously. It wasn't long before the Canadian pulled out his phone to pull up a hockey game to watch as he walked eyes soon narrowing at the small screen in annoyance.

Feliciano soon was catching up with the other two casting a glance at Matthew. He went to get their attention multiple times before backing off to look at the Canadian, "Um… Ludwig? Gilbert? Is that… Normal?" Glancing back he jumped slightly at the rather angered look on Matthew's face, whose eyes were locked onto the screen, "He's been doing that from the past few moments and cursing about hockey or something and his favorite team losing. It's gotten the the point he's nearly thrown his phone and stopped walking altogether." The Italian looked at them with a worried expression on his face, "I mean a few moments ago he was smiling…"

Gilbert froze, the words Alfred had said to him last night suddenly clicking into place. At first, he almost panicked in a rather unawesome manner, more for the sake of Matthew's phone, mental health and the physical state of everyone around him, but within moments he let out a soft laugh, bringing his hand up to his forehead. "This is probably not going to end well, but why not test our limits," he shrugged. Ludwig raised an eyebrow curiously at his brother, the other one furrowed in confusion and probably apathy, but didn't question him. This was Gilbert, after all; no matter what the cost, the outcome had to be awesome, and not even a truck would stand in the way of that if he knew his brother at all. "Let Mattie be for now. I honestly want to take him to drink something now.. I mean, if he breaks anything it won't be ours, right? And we can pay for stuff anyway." By now he was just rambling, trying to decide on the most awesome choice to make in this situation.

Several minutes later, the albino had finally made his decision, which was a good thing since they'd arrived in the main part of town. He pointed upwards dramatically, like a movie or anime character or something, and loudly announced that they were taking Matthew for some amazing German beer. Maybe Alfred would resent him for it, and perhaps his brother would too, but he was never one to just listen to someone when they told him the water was 10 degrees. Nope, he had to jump in and check for himself. And so Ludwig rather reluctantly led the three to their favorite location for doing such.

Gilbert slowed down a bit as they walked to keep pace with Matthew. "Were you actually watching hockey on your phone earlier?" he asked, actually curious. Matt hadn't broken his phone yet, that was good. Maybe Alfred really didn't know what he was talking about. Then again, the American (How Alfred could be American while Matthew was Canadian confused Gilbert quite a bit) had known Matthew a lot longer than he had, so he could never be too sure. Personally Gilbert wasn't that much into hockey, more a fan of football (European football, not American football), but he knew a few things and would probably understand Matt's frustration if he watched with him while drunk.

Matthew glanced up from his phone with a slightly startled expression tilting it the show the Prussian the hockey game that was going on. His teams score had luckily evened out before anything to bad had happened to the cellular device he was holding though his expression remained slightly tense. "Is that what Al had called about? Honestly you'd think my brother expects me to explode every time I watch a hockey game." Despite the words Matthew cast a sideways nervous glance to the floor with a slight sigh, "I don't get _that_worked up over the game honestly. It was one time and I didn't even break anything _too_expensive." '_Just multiple things that added up to being worth a lot_**' **he kept his final thought on the matter to himself however instead glancing around the main area of the town that they'd wandered into and dropping the topic. Though the hockey game remained playing on his phone the noise of it muted faintly though the Canadian seemed to have his hearing strained to hear it given his body would tense every now and then before relaxing.

He cursed mentally well aware that him and hockey would often equal full out trouble, the last time he'd actually ended up needing to go get stitches after breaking a television and cutting up his arm slightly the the process, since then time for watching hockey had been overly limited by his brother and father who feared the Canadian would start throwing things through windows or even accidentally going as far as hurting a person around him when he broke something. There was no real 'explanation' as to why the gentle male would snap whenever hockey became involved but they assumed it had something to do with him having too much pent up aggression, it all had to go somewhere right? They'd reached a point where they'd just sent Matthew out to play the game himself lately, at least since then he hadn't broke as much stuff during his fits of anger.

Gilbert snorted. "You're more similar to me than I thought. Once me and my friends got drunk and somehow ended up in a convenience store at three in the morning. The cashier was asleep.. at least until we had a fight in the snack aisle. Lots of three to ten dollar objects flying around for half an hour, a shelf falling over, there may or may not have been milk empted out on Toni's head.. to make a long story short, I had to spend more than one hundred and fifty dollars at a freaking gas station. I'm pretty sure I gave them more and they kept the change 'cause I was drunk. Speaking of drunk, we're here." The (non-musical) quartet made their way into the building and up to the counter. Gilbert rolled his eyes as Ludwig watched Feliciano intently, maybe so he didn't break anything, maybe because he was adorable. The Prussian may never know the secrets of his brother's mind.

"So what are we getting?" the albino asked as the odd little group sat down, scanning the bar for anyone he knew. Francis wasn't here, and nor was Antonio.. Matthias hadn't shown though as the night progressed it was safe to guess he would.. no Roderich, Elizabeta or Vash either. Seemed the only people he knew here were the people he'd come in with. _No problem, means I can hang out with Matt without Francis doing his thing. _He shuddered slightly at the thought. The mentality of that Frenchman worried him quite a bit, but he'd sold his soul to life with two idiots for best friends a long time ago. Ludwig and Gilbert naturally both ordered beer when greeted by the bartender, who kindly agreed to leave Feliciano and Matthew a moment to decide. With a glance upwards, Gilbert noted that the TV was tuned in to the same hockey game Matthew had been watching earlier. It seemed Matthew's team was losing again. Luckily, the Canadian didn't seem to have picked up on either fact yet. _This may end awesomely or badly.. only time will tell. Kesese._Gilbert did, in fact, quite literally think his rather strange laugh.

Feliciano glanced around staying close to Ludwig for once in his life seeming to keep his hands to himself, aside from occasionally reaching his hand out to move a few thing around when they caught his attention, something that seemed rather easier to do no matter where he was. He didn't seem to keen on ordering anything, next to a few mumbles about pasta and various Italian meals, though he didn't wander all that far from the table due to the fact something would always startle him back into retreating to hide near Ludwig casting glances over the area only to wander back off and look around once more at something else. "...Matthew are you okay?" The Italian tilted his head watching Matthew with a worried gaze before he followed Matthew's gaze to the television behind them, "Oh."


	4. Hockey Plus Beer is No

It hadn't taken to long for Matthew's attention to flicker over to the television upon hearing the sounds of the hockey game going on. Biting his lip a bit too harshly the male was soon on his feet to wander to where he could get a better look at the game, even the curl on his head seemed to have lowered as the content atmosphere around the Canadian sunk faster than a ship. His only break in his focus to tell the bartender to get him '_whatever would make it feel like his favorite team wasn't playing like 5 year-olds just learning to skate_' when they were actually playing quite well to pick back up the score.

His gaze darted around the screen letting multiple ways they could have scored play out in his mind, only even visibly irritating himself even more. When the drink was sat beside him the male picked it up nearly dropping it when his team started falling behind the drink very quickly gone and his knuckles turning a faint white as he gripped the glass trying to stay calm over the fact they'd fallen behind horribly in the past few moments. Instead of casting the glass to the side it remained rooted in his hand quite shockingly similar to holding it as he would before throwing it gaze locked onto the television.

"Matthew," Gilbert began, uncharacteristically calm, "if you're gonna break something over the hockey game, break a window, not the TV. Or someone's head. Ya know, whatever's least expensive." He paused for a moment to take a gulp of the drink in his mug before contemplating it again. "Then again, you probably shouldn't break anyone's head. Lawsuits are no fun, neither are medical bills. Stick to the window." The fact that Gilbert was talking so loosely about this seemed to worry the poor bartender quite a bit, but the Prussian really didn't care, it amused him that something could have this effect on such a calm, collected and courteous person. He'd probably keep pushing the boundaries until Matthew really _did _break a window, and even then, who knows when Gilbert would decide to remove him from the situation. A fight breaking out was all good in his eyes.. probably not healthy, but entertaining nonetheless. His opinion was probably influenced by the fact that the past times it had happened had been clouded with alcohol.

He continued draining mugs of beer, keeping a close eye on his increasingly irritated Canadian friend. He had the feeling Ludwig would wander off soon- he normally did- and then the real fun would start. Even under influence of alcohol, his brother remained calm and collected, but he was quicker to anger and would be more likely to calm everyone down (read: yell and scare everyone into submission) if things got exciting. The bar was locally owned and the manager himself occasionally came out and drank with the rather loud, regular group of Germans there. The manager himself was Scottish, but it didn't bother anyone; he fit in with the Germans just fine. He normally didn't come out till late, but when he did things always got more fun, no matter who was there- even Roderich would start to act almost as 'awesomely' stupid as Gilbert himself under the influence of a few drinks and Allistor Kirkland. As Gilbert was starting to zone out, there was suddenly a loud roar echoing through the room, a mixture of cheering and booing as the team opposite Matthew's scored again. The albino grinned. _Three.. two.._

Matthew's eyes suddenly narrowed rather dangerously his gaze flickering between the Prussian and the screen before settling on the glass he held, "Yeah better not smash it over a head since you're the person standing closest to me Gil." His arm was shaking slightly as the cheering grew louder sounding too loud for the Canadian's liking. Ducking his head slightly the male was clearly fighting to restrain himself from acting far too rashly at that moment although his head lifted slightly to look at a chair before the window, "Gilbert don't test things." His grip on the bottle loosened for a second as calm decided to finally steal back over the male.

Sadly, or well luckily given it seemed to be the Prussian's goal to get a bad reaction out of him, the cheering tore through the area once again as Matthew's team failed to defend their goal once again. Almost instantly his head snapped back up grabbing the glass to only slam it into the counter with a loud _crack_ splitting through the air as the broken pieces slid across the counter and onto the floor, some shattering even further upon hitting the ground to stir a '_mist_' of broken glass. "I-... Sorry!" The male seemed about as startled as the people around him and the bartender, "I didn't think it'd break that easily," '_you know cause merely slamming the thing into a counter never breaks things Matthew_'. It was rather clear it'd been a lie, at the very least the Canadian hadn't thought about what he was doing. Slipping his hand close he hid it under the counter slightly his breathing a bit harsh. Despite being '_sorry_' he glanced once again at the window and the closest chair to him. "Sorry Gil… I wouldn't have broken it over your head though, woulda stained your hair pink," He joked slightly trying to ease up the situation tearing his gaze away from the window and shockingly right back to the game like it was a magnet.

"So _thaaaat's _what happens when you watch hockey and drink at the same time," Gilbert smirked. "Don't worry about it. I've seen.. a lot worse. Just don't ask. My current question is, when's my other friend going to show up? Not Franny or Toni, his name is Ma-" His introduction was interrupted by a ruckus near the entrance. "That must be him," Gilbert announced to Matthew, smirking once again. He could hear the Dane's voice from here. Not surprisingly, he was asking if Gilbert was here; he'd probably tried and failed to get one of his other friends to come with him for the hundredth time. Honestly, Gilbert had no idea how the older male got any studying done with all the time he spent at the bar and with his mixture of Scandinavian friends, but it didn't really bother him. He didn't really like school either. He did know, however, that Matthias was smarter than he looked; he got great grades and was almost ready to go back to his boyfriend in North America (whom Gilbert had no idea about).

Gilbert waved the excited college student over, grinning as he approached. What he was not expecting, however, was for him to stop a few steps away from the group. "Err.. Matthias? Sup?" Gilbert greeted, raising one white eyebrow in a confused arch. "What's he doing here? No offense, Matthew, but you're not the kinda guy I'd expect to find in some German pub. In Germany. Not with Alfred, your awesome brother." _Hey, I'm the awesomest one here- wait… _"You know him?" the Prussian asked in confusion. "Not very well," Matthias admitted. (Matthew had apparently been exiled from the conversation.) "But I know his brother. A lot. He's my boyfriend back in North America I mentioned." That cleared a little bit up… but Gilbert was still confused. All this time, and he hadn't realized he had two connections to the American who went out of his way to protect his brother even if it meant hating the most awesome person on the planet. "Well, that's pretty.. surprising, to say in the least. Matt, you never mentioned Al dating anyone.. or that if he was dating someone that he'd be dating a guy, for that matter."

"Hello Matthias. Al would have come to Germany with me but… Given the multiple threats that'd he'd 'gut that Prussian like a fish' if he did a thing wrong well, I brought Kumajiro instead." The Canadian paused at Gilbert's last sentence glancing at the albino male with a slight glare clearly a bit annoyed by the statement, but choosing to bite his tongue and remain quiet about the topic mumbling something about the world still learning to change. "It was never important to bring up, Alfred tends to keep his private life private so I don't tell every person I meet about it. As for the dating a guy part I don't see any issues with it, It's becoming fairly common so it's nothing abnormal to bring up." Matthew seemed completely unaware of how defensive he'd begun to get about the topic. The fact being he almost missed another cheer for the other team only moving at the last second to glare at the television.

"Ah… Ludwig? Gilbert?" The Italian glanced around them to stare at the ground below Matthew where the still freshly broken glass shards were. Slowly blood had dripped from the Canadian's hand onto the floor, to hyped on the adrenaline from watching the game to have allowed the pain to register in his mind, "Is that blood? Matthew you're bleeding!"

Lifting his hand at the statement the male raised his hand visibly flinching at the sight of blood and covering his mouth with the other hand, "At least it's not as bad as last time. Don't worry about it, It'll stop eventually I suppose." Pulling off his button up, leaving the male in his sleeveless shirt, he wrapped into around the bleeding hand flinching again, "So Matthias have you seen the pictures of the little colt Alfred bought last month? He's been fawning over the thing since he'd brought it home and the the local boarding stables, haven't seen him this happy since before you'd left." Matthew nearly bit his tongue at the statement aware Alfred had been in a childish like fit after Matthias left and had wanted nothing to do with the male for a good week and a half, and still been quite grouchy since until suddenly becoming happy once again without a reason a month ago.

"Oh, just saying, there's no problem with it.. I mean, I knew Matthias was dating a guy since I met him and I've never had a problem with it. Just a little curious about my friend's brother's life I guess.. Oh holy crap!" His ramble ended in a worried exclamation as he, along with Matthias, noticed the blood running from Matthew's hand. "Are you sure you're okay?" His question was answered by being completely dismissed. _Alright, I guess he's fine..._

"No, I haven't," Matthias answered, shaking his head as he sat down next to Gilbert, leaning over to better see Matthew. "He hasn't talked to me much since I left.. Sucks, ya know? I wish he wasn't so mad. I mean, I wanted to tell him earlier on that I was going to study in Europe.. But it was really hard to do, so I ended up telling him the week before." It seemed he said this both to jog Matthew's memory and to explain the situation to Gilbert, as he occasionally acknowledged the albino with his eyes. "Tell him I said hi, okay? He hasn't answered me in a few days."

Gilbert was listening, but he rarely looked up, preferring to stare into the distance. Finally he spoke again. "I guess that's not the best thing ever, but good luck with Alfred, 'kay? Wish me luck finding a boyfriend too." He flashed a grin at Matthew, able to actually prove his point about dating guys that he'd made earlier. Matthias laughed. "Good luck. For goodness sake, I've been here for ten minutes and I'm not drinking anything. Bartender!"

Resting his hand in his lap the Canadian paused, "Al's been lying then he said you two had spoken not to long ago. He acted 'seriously bummed out', as he'd say, after you were gone, total drama queen fit and all." Matthew sighed under his breath recalling how soon after Alfred had returned to being a insanely overprotective big brother. "Though really we expected Al to go full girl and announce he was a girl or something after the third tub on ice cream vanished," Matthew shook his head still startled by how much Alfred could eat on one of his tantrums. Pulling out his phone he flicked through pictures quietly to find one of Alfred, "He's actually lost weight since he got back into horses and sports after you left," Setting the phone down he slid it over to Matthias calmly.

The picture was both Matthew and Alfred from right before he'd left two days ago. Matthew was hunched over slightly, due to Alfred using him a support beam instead of standing up straight and his normal slouch, with a weak smile from laughing in a rather nervous manner. Alfred on the other hand was staring past the camera at something with a large smile on his face, his cowboy hat nearly falling off to the point a stubborn piece of hair was clearly visible defying gravity just like Matthew's curl did. It was rather clear that'd while Matthew had gained a few needed pounds Alfred had dropped a good 10 pounds and bulked up instead.

"He likes to gloat about it but he's a bigger pain now that he's getting stronger," Rubbing his neck Matthew sighed more or less referring to the headlocks Alfred tended to put his brother in, "Threw a stupid baseball and nail a Russian kid that'd moved in between the legs last week, spent an hour running from said Russian after he'd recovered from Alfred knocking the guy flat from bugging a local.

Matthias laughed a little. "Should've expected something like that from him. Going total girl on everyone.. He even ate all that ice cream? Honestly, you'd think he was a teenage girl. Does he just learn everything about life from the movies he watches?" Gilbert shook his head in a mixture of pity and apathy. "I guess he must, since he believes that I'm a danger to his brother. Not awesome at all." With a grin, Matthias held his hand up to high five him; Gilbert gladly accepted. They both had a certain fondness for the word awesome, a trait Gilbert was quick to guess that Alfred shared.


	5. Have No Fear, Our Hero Is Here!

Within minutes Matthias had drained another mug of beer, as the three continued to gossip about things (mostly Alfred) and occasionally asking for Feliciano's input. Somehow they ended up talking about Francis and his antics, and soon enough moved on to Matthias's friends. Ludwig sat a few chairs away now, eyeing the group wearily. "I think I'm the only one left that remembers we're men and not pretty little schoolgirls.."

"So every day, every day I kid you not, he _insists _Tino is his wife. Every day. It never fails. And _every day,_ Tino tells Ber not to call him wife. He just never listens!" There was a flurry of laughter, especially from the two heavier drinkers who were both beginning to grow a bit drunk. Matthias's words were even beginning to slur together. "And then Lukas! Lukas creeps up on his brother all the freakin' time. Big brother, big brother. It's hopeless." Gilbert shook his head, still laughing, at this, hardly able to believe even something that simple in this state. "It's just great. By the way, Gil, you found a boyfriend yet or you still single? Cause my friends are completely hopeless in that department." (Ludwig was still staring at the increasingly girly group of men.) "Nah. You, Mattie?"

Matthew and Feliciano both set their drinks down glancing between the others than at each other with slightly accusing gazes. Thier moments were rather small compared to the Italian's normal flailing while speaking, no he just shrugged faintly holding his hands up in a manner of self defense at a silent accusation. Glancing at the drinks piling up between Gilbert and Mathias they shook their heads slightly before Feliciano glanced at Ludwig confused by the look he was giving everybody, causing Matthew to break into a slight laugh when he noticed. Only a day around them and even he could tell the Italian's focused seemed to lock onto Ludwig half of the time, the other half split between objects and other people.

Felciano glanced back at Matthew's laugh with a slightly startled expression, as though he hadn't noticed he'd turned to look at Ludwig. Pouting slightly he glanced away looking like a kid caught with their hand in a cookie jar, or in Feliciano's case in a pasta pot. Shaking his head Matthew glanced back up remembering he'd been asked a question, "No… I haven't dated anybody in quite a while, I'm not really the outgoing guy people look for." Finishing his drink the male shrugged as though it didn't mean a thing at all, rather relaxed since the game had gone off.

Pausing the male glanced at his phone as his ringtone rang through the air, the man flushing bright red at '_Don't wanta be some beer swilling hockey nut!_' before pulling out the phone to answer a video call pausing the instant he heard, "_Sup Bro-ha!_" and his eyes slowly start recognizing where the American was. Suddenly his eyes widened before he choked slightly on his drink, "_Alfred_! What the _hell _are you doing in germany!? I thought it'd take you a lot longer to cave in." The last part sounded a bit thoughtful though the Canadian still looked to be startled.

Once again Ludwig and Gilbert were rendered thoughtless by the silent conversation being held by Matthew and Feliciano, but this time their confusion was shared by Matthias. All three of them just gave a small shrug, Gilbert and Matthias trying to restrain their laughter as the Canadian's _very _Canadian ringtone. At the exclamation of who it was, though, both the blond and the albino stood, crouching behind Matthew and watching the screen intently like little kids.

"So thaaaat's what your brother looks like," Gilbert murmured into Matthew's ear rather creepily. On the contrary, Matthias grinned over Matthew's shoulder. "Hi, hot stuff," the Dane greeted, clearly happy to see the American's face again. "But like Matt asked, what're you doing in Germany?" The two more obnoxious males were quickly taking over the conversation. By now Ludwig had stood up and was towering over them- he was actually a couple inches shorter than Matthew, but the Canadian was sitting- and watching the screen as well. Alfred had been called an attention hog, but now he had quite an audience.

Finally Gilbert decided to break the silence. "Do you know that secret weird language they speak sometimes?"

He was answered by a strange stare from everyone at the table.

"That thing. Where Matt and Feli stare at each other, make weird sounds and motions, and somehow completely comprehend what they're saying."

There was a collective "aaaah" of understanding from the others at the table.

"No, but seriously, are Matthew and Feliciano the only ones who understand?" Matthias asked, pausing before he added, "Do you have to be a girly man to get it? Alfred must understand, then."

Frowning at the side comment from Matthias he sighed shaking his head starting to walk around mumbling something about finding any kind of place with burgers under his breath along with a side comment that made Matthew tell him to shut-up before he could finish, "Well, I actually understand because we grew up together, not because I'm a girl. Be glad you're good lookin' or I'd be mad." Glancing at his phone he paused when Feliciano and Matthew had started up their silent conversation. A few moments passed before he broke into a slight laughter shoulders shaking slightly in amusement.

"I… It might be better of if you didn't try to understand Germans. Cause it's about you two as well as them I think. Matthias it was the same thing me and Mattie would chat about," The males grinned faintly having had to awkwardly explain that Matthew had been teasing his brother about a crush he'd had on Matthias, though they'd communicated rather similar to how Matthew and Feliciano were right then, "I wonder how it'll unfold for them…" Biting his lip in a similar fashion to how Matthew rather often would the American moved his phone away a bit to look around his hair a wreck as it normally was and he was clearly wearing his old bomber jacket, just the hints of fur in the frame giving it away, "I think I'm going to stop moving before I get lost, where are you all maybe we can meet up? and dad got mad so he decided to just send me and Tony here…" Tilting the camera to the ground a mass of fur came into view. Merely a few seconds passed before the cat lifted it's head glancing at the camera only to let out a series of broken meows sounding shockingly close to a few human curse words, "Aw! He likes you guys!" the cat paused at least when it saw Matthias sitting down and turning to a picture of innocence, "... Okay he like Matthias a lot more than the others. But still!"

Gilbert raised an eyebrow, suspicious of the cat's innocence (and doubting that it was from Earth.. It was either from space or from hell, that he was sure of). "Uh.. Sure. The cat's cute. So wait.. Awesome brain process working." He glanced at Matthias, who retained the same expression as Gilbert. "Alllllfreed," Gilbert smirked, almost singing. Both typically clueless males seemed to know something. "You do realize that you literally just gave _everything _away, right?" It was true. Gilbert now understood what was going on and Matthias had figured it out moments after. Ludwig seemed to have a better understanding than earlier.. but in order to understand he'd have to have a basic understanding of socialization and relationships in general, which he did not.

"You seriously just told us everything we need to know," Gilbert began explaining. "You mentioned their freaky girly language thing was used when you revealed your crush on Matthias here. You also said it involved both me and my brother. And you also said it involved them, plus there was blushing. Lots of adorable little blushing."

"Now we just have to figure out who's who. Like one of those 'match the definition to the vocabulary word' things we got as kids," Matthias interjected with a smirk of his own.

Luckily enough for the two males who were the current focus of the group's attention, Gilbert and Matthias were not _that _smart, and so they couldn't figure that out quite yet, no matter how simple it seemed. Both of them had seen some weird stuff in their lives and there was little that could surprise them. Both expected the unexpected. That was the way awesomeness worked. A slightly confused Ludwig, in the meantime, gave directions to Alfred (both of whom had quickly become excluded from the conversation.)

"No one said the cowboy was bright enough not to give away the secrets so yeah." Heading along the streets Alfred casted glances at the phone smiling slightly at their antics, "You seriously can't figure it out? You'd think it'd be so simple to figure out." Picking up Tony and setting the, rather huge, cat on his shoulders as Alfred headed for the bar slipping inside calmly and hanging up the phone. Pausing near them he cast a glance at Matthias with a slightly annoyed and hurt look pulling Matthew to a quick hug in greeting rather quickly pulling the other blonde into a headlock, "We said no hockey Mattie! You're lucky I brought a first aid kit." Folding his arms as he pulled away he glanced at the mis-matched group with a raised eyebrow, his and the cat's eyes narrowing at the Prussian.

Matthew shook his head motioning to Alfred and the cat, "This is Alfred and his cat Tony, who he found near a crashed 'UFO'. a.k.a a weather balloon," He paused when Alfred shouted 'It was like totally a unidentified falling object bro!' before resuming, "Pardon any racist, rude, insulting, or about anything he says and it's safe to assume he's carrying a weapon of some form." Frowning slightly when Alfred nodded, a bit too happily, he moved to stand in front of Gilbert slightly. Despite the fact he'd bulked up as Matthew had mentioned earlier he still had the sweet and a bit childish look that hid the threat the American actually could pose to a person.

Feliciano remained quiet tapping his fingers together nervously. He'd actually managed to finish a bottle of the rather strong german beer for once, normally he'd take a sip and resort straight to complaining about wanting to go get something to eat.

Matthias gave a small disheartened pout as Alfred shot him the look, _that _look, the look that could crack his heart at any given moment, whilst the others at the table remained oblivious. "Alfred, I don't think your cat likes me," Gilbert laughed, knowing very well that the cat (and its owner) already had something against him. "So do me and Matthias- and Ludwig since he's involved- have to wait till out awesome manly intuition kicks in, or do we get an explanation now?" The two were genuinely curious and irritated by the limits of their awesome brains. Instead of thinking more, however, Gilbert decided to attempt petting the alien-cat, resulting only in having to dart his hand back quickly to avoid a sharp set of claws. "Told ya I didn't like cats," he muttered to Matthew.

Ludwig wasn't sure how to join the conversation. Having friends wasn't really his thing. Sure, he could put up with Gilbert and Feliciano, and even occasionally at the same time, but these three blonds had him stuck at how to react. Instead he sat on the table, observing the scene with crossed arms. It was hard to believe that his brother was so good at socializing and talking to people whilst he remained unable to make polite conversation without frightening anyone.

Matthias, in the meantime, was trying to get Alfred to talk to him properly and apologize; the Dane was rather disappointed that Alfred hadn't seemed excited to see him even after all these months. "Al.. Al.. Alfie.. Alfie.. Alfred.." He attempted quite an assortment of names to get the American's attention on him. Gilbert actually found it a little sad, but he couldn't really fix anything; it would be easier and more productive to figure out if he should flirt with the blond in question's brother or not. Quite a tricky question, really.

Narrowing his eyes at the Dane for a few moments Alfred paused before sighing slightly, tearing his gaze away he glanced at the counter as though it'd become very interesting despite there being nothing out of the ordinary about it, except arks from Matthews act of violence against it. He'd spent months mad at the man, and for once he was telling the truth about meaning months instead of mistaking months for a single week, and now all that anger was about to go down the drain because he was actually insanely _happy_ to see the other male. Glancing around and nervously tapping his leg like he normally would when he'd start to cave in he merely glanced at the dane like a puppy who's insanely kind owner had just hit it, a full on look of pure betrayal and pain, before turning away to look at the others eyes lighting up with excitement again. Casting a glance at Matthew, who'd moved off with the first aid kit to clean his wounded hand, he faced the Prussian with a narrowed gaze, "You hurt my brother. I hurt you to the point you can't move." For a moment Alfred looked like a cross between an overprotective brother and father, possibly also the more frightening mother role for a split second, something that could possibly put the Russian kid they lived nears glare to shame.

Feliciano paused heading over to Ludwig after a moment, finding it a bit harder to manage to sit on the table beside the male mumbling a weak 've' clearly getting tired with all of the day's happenings. Glancing up at the German he tilted his head remaining quiet after a few moments as though deciding for once not the bother the other male, though he did rather annoyingly insist on kicking his legs.

Glancing over the wounds Matthew bit his tongue silently cleaning them, even looking ready to cry over the pain, Matthew had never learned to handle pain well. He'd lied earlier about the wounds not being too bad, infact they were quite deep in some places, some were even close to where they would have required stitches. His button-up shirt had been discarded to the ground below him now in favor of gauze.

Gilbert almost amusedly held his hands up in front of his chest in a classic pose of innocence (and occasionally surrender); he was actually innocent and planned to stay that way unless absolutely necessary to preserve his awesomeness. The Prussian couldn't conceive a valid reason for Matthew's brother to hate him so much besides the fact that he was friends with his brother and seemed to be advancing past that according to Feliciano and Matthew's.. conversation. Had Matthew never had a boyfriend (or girlfriend) before? Maybe that was why he hadn't dated anyone in so long.. perhaps for the sake of their physical health rather than himself. Matthew would do that.

Matthias winced at Alfred's expression that, as was probably intended, reminded him of a kicked puppy. Or kitten, depending on preferences; Alfred had always preferred cats anyway. "Al.." he muttered in a rather whiny voice. Sure, both of them were smarter than they looked, but that didn't stop both of them from being childish as well. It hurt him a bit to see Alfred like this and it kinda made him want to jump on the next plane back to Canada, if only a little (that would be a lie, he honestly felt like abandoning college and returning to save the kicked puppy that was Alfred F Jones and his stupid adorable pouty face.) He had a feeling the subtle body language was confusing Gilbert almost as much as the conversation going on between Matthew and Feliciano earlier, so he gave the Prussian an apologetic glance, though the only thing returned was an eyeroll. Apparently Gilbert _did _know what was going on.

"Anyway, Al," the albino in question began, returning to his own conversation, "I'm not going to hurt your brother in any way, shape, or form. I don't plan on doing so." He looked awfully amused by Alfred's overprotectiveness but almost in a way that seemed he knew how that felt and regretted it somehow.

"You don't have to plan to hurt someone Gilbert," Slowly the American folded his arms sighing slightly, "It's very easy to hurt a person without trying to. Like giving them a week to say goodbye before leaving," Glancing at the Dane beside him he shook his head slightly, "And then not saying goodbye when anything could happen…" Looking around the male pause his mind quickly derailing off topic and his thought train ramming straight into a ditch. Silently his leg began to tap in a nervous manner, "Why don't you go help Mattie Gilbert? He looks like he's in a lot of pain… I'm surprised he hasn't fainted seeing the blood." Turning away he glanced at Matthias able to smell the alcohol from where he was, "We can talk the instant you're not drunk okay? Than maybe we can also have a proper reunion, because believe it or not, I'm insanely happy to see you." 'and know you're safe and alive…' the final thought remained unvoiced. It wasn't that Alfred feared the strain of a long distance relationship, no he truly believed it made a couple all the more stronger, he feared the distance. While he wouldn't tell anybody he'd gained a insanely irrational fear that he'd wake up to get some e-mail, or even worse a phone call, that Matthias had gone missing or died. It was insane yes, but Alfred couldn't very well be the hero from thousands of miles away.

Pausing his train of thoughts he sat down to order a drink, if everyone else was drunk he figured why not? He'd just blame social influence the next morning anyways. He began to focus on another problem, a place to stay. It'd been such a rush to board a plane that arrangements for the simplest things had slipped his mind. Casting a sideways glance at his bag and guitar case, a noted much lighter travel set then Matthew's was.

"I guess you're right," Gilbert half sighed, half grumbled, not wanting to have to agree and wincing when he saw the guilty look on Matthias's face. There was an awkward pause for a moment, none of the three having anything to say until Alfred alleviated at least Gilbert's awkwardness by suggesting he help Matthew. Unfortunately it didn't really do anything for Matthias or Alfred; in fact it probably made it worse for the both of them. "Seems fair," Matthias sighed finally, still wounded and actually kind of irritated by Alfred's refusal to cooperate. Why couldn't the idiotic American just forgive him? It wasn't hard to tell he missed the Dane, in fact he'd just admitted it.. "Where are you going to stay tonight, anyway?" he asked, trying to make it a bit less awkward.

Meanwhile, Gilbert walked up behind Matthew to assist him like the Canadian's brother had suggested, for once actually listening to instructions other than his own. "Hey, Matt," he greeted after standing there for a few moments. "Your brother said you might need a little bit of help.. so I came to deliver the power of my pure awesomeness to assist you in the removal of the completely pointless pain in your hand caused by an overdose of hockey and alcohol." (His expression was one of complete normalcy.) "How's it loo- oh, crap, Matt, that looks bad. Let me see." He pushed Matthew's shoulder out of the way to turn him and examine the injury. The Prussian knew a surprising amount about first aid, especially for cuts and injuries, considering how much he'd roughed around with other kids when he was younger. He'd sort of picked up on how to treat cuts like this quickly. Not that they were often treated as soon as they happened.. there had to be a winner, after all. He was quite disappointed to find he could not instantly heal a broken leg either, but that was a tale for another time or maybe later if Matthew wondered how he'd learned to bandage a wound so quickly. In fact, at the moment he was quickly wrapping the gauze around Matthew's hand and a little higher on the wrist than it seemed necessary, much faster and neater than Matthew's handiwork had been and hopefully a bit less painful.

Lifting his head the American finished off his first drink ducking his head slightly with a nervous expression. He let out a faint laugh avoiding answering until he'd finished off another drink turning to face Matthias, "Well… Maybe a hotel I guess? I don't know… Really didn't have plans on how I'm going to order food in a German speaking country." It was no secret that Alfred forgot to take care of himself rather often, whether housing or food it'd slip his mind easily. In fact he'd spent two days without eating once before anybody had noticed, left the house to go get food and returned about two more days in total later still hungry. In that entire time period the American had been glued to a new video game he'd and managed to drop a good 10 pounds wandering the town aimlessly until he'd run into Matthias. Though his following idea was to take the dane to Mcdonalds and eat enough the feed an entire army, a rather unhealthy meal needless to say(in his defense he took the other male out to a local restaurant the next week, but refused to eat anything.) "I'll figure something out don't worry." Pausing Alfred threw an arm around the other males shoulders the drink at least loosening his attitude a bit.

"Thank Gilbert… I didn't think it'd been that bad. At least I didn't break the window I suppose. You're decent at handling wounds… Maybe you're turning turning out to be _at least half as awesome_ as you think you are." He was joking at the last part though the male actually did look rather grateful about the help. Glancing past him Matthew let out a slight laugh at his brother's antics, despite being 'mad' the American was caving enough to now look like he was choking the poor Dane in a hug, "And this is two thirds of my dysfunctional family Gilbert."

Matthias couldn't help but grin- sort of a 'yay, boyfriend likes me again' sort of emotion- at the sudden change in Alfred's mood. "Good luck with that. If ya need any help, I speak it now, since you know I kinda have to since I've been here so long.. And my door's always unlocked." _Maybe _he was pushing it, but it was worth a shot, at the very least.

"Dysfunctional families are the best kind," Gilbert laughed, finishing off the bandage. "How do you think me and Ludwig get along? Or even Feliciano and his brother.. Just varying types of awesome. I'm the best type, but that's currently irrelevant for once. Luddy's the 'I'm all strong and stuff but I don't give a crap' kind of awesome. Feliciano is the 'happy happy oh I'm also really weak but yay' awesome. Al's the 'I really do care about my brother and I will take care of him even if it means oppressing his love life' awesome. You're the 'seems really sarcastic and short over the internet but turns out to be polite and tall' type. Matthias is the 'I'm so freaking sorry please don't hate me we're too awesome for that' kind. And I'm just awesome, plain and simple." He finished his little speech with a smirk, glad to see he seemed intelligent and uplifting for once (at least in his eyes).

"Your brother's friend is cool. You really shouldn't worry about him, believe me," Matthias repeated, trying to convince Alfred of Gilbert's worthiness. He felt the least he could do for the Prussian to thank him for getting him connected to Alfred again was this. It was so obvious that Gilbert would speak that weird language about the Canadian if he was as girly as Feliciano and Matthew. "Beliiiieeeeve meeeee."

Leaning away Alfred glanced him eyes narrowing at the invite and the statement about Gilbert, "..." Biting his lip slightly he narrowed his eyes in a slightly accusing manner, "If you loved me you'd let my gut him honey… I could take you to dinner after I'd finished, a nice real dinner no burgers. I'll even get ass dressed up for it," The American was smiling, very clearly only barely joking about the dinner as though any second he'd dragged the poor Dane out to dinner without a second thought, "Talk about things like some high school couple dreaming about the future and pretend you never left for a bit. Like on one of those hollywood movies. Get to like 25 and adopt a little brat, has to be a girl though," Slowly the male's thoughts wandered off into rambling about 'the future' joking a bit about buying the house at the end of the road where he and Matthew lived, and thoroughly insisting that the kid if the adopted would be a baby girl, muttering something about there being too many men in the family(Though more about spoiling the possible child completely rotten). Alfred wouldn't admit it but upon finding out the other was moving he'd very well near dumped him right then and there, though instead had storm off in a fit and not spoken to the other but maybe 5 times since that night. He was far too stubborn to be the one to stop the relationship though. "By the way I might need to take you up on the offer of housing me for the NIGHT though. To drunk to get a hotel room I think. I need to call Allen soon and tell him I'm not making gaming night..."

"The sarcastic type? Are you kidding me?" Matthew shook his head in a unamused manner, "When was I ever sarcastic?- Don't answer that," Picking up a drink he shook his head, "Shouldn't we get to heading back? It's bound to be getting late by now Gil." Getting up, he finished the drink.

The Prussian laughed at the comment as they again arrived at their table. "Right. You were _never _sarcastic in the letters. But yeah, it's probably a good idea to leave now." He slid his phone out of his pocket, eyes widening when he saw the time on the glowing screen. "Shoot, it's six-o-five. We should get going. I mean, I've stayed later but only when Franny and Toni are with me." His voice caused the others at the table to look up in surprise. "We should go, then," Ludwig said- it was more of an order, really- as he stood from his position of leaning on the table. "Do we have everyone? Alfred, do you have your cat?"

Matthias was just then responding to Alfred's little fantasy. "Yeah. Maybe. Spoiling kids is great. Let's just stick with that date for now, okay? Future is the future. Now is now. Some metaphor about a bridge. Alright, let's go." As they stood, Matthias grabbed Alfred's hand, locking it in a firm grip. He might as well.

And so yet again they were marching through the streets of Germany, this time with two more people (three counting the cat). Considering it was summer, it wasn't all that dark at all, so there was still enough light to see, which was lucky considering at least half of the group was drunk. Ludwig was still leading the way.

"Matthias, when are you and Alfred going to leave?"

The blond lifted his head at the question. "Well, I'm not sure," he shrugged. "I guess we'll split off after we get to that street you guys live on. I live about two blocks north of that intersection, so.." He paused to ruffle Alfred's hair with his free hand. "You'll just have to put up with us until then!"

Alfred and Tony were glaring at Matthias for a good long while through narrowed eyes, until Alfred stopp when his hair was messed with soon sinking into a state of plotting out the date, having been quite serious about it. Leaning against the other slightly he glanced around startling when his stomach growled, "When did I last…" He cut off eyes widening slightly before going quietly and holding his tongue, it'd been a bit past a good while since his last meal. "And tomorrow I can find a nice little hotel to stay in I suppose. Then we can discuss dinner like I mentioned earlier Matthias, Hit me with a frying pan in the morning in case I forget because we are getting dinner before me and Mattie go back home… And discussing getting another cat. Tony's gotten lonely. All cats must get along with both you and Tony, like Tony get's along with you," The American laughed slightly when Tony jumped onto Matthias's shoulder.

A few feet away Matthew raised an eyebrow at his brother's stomach, insanely loud, grumbling. It wasn't a huge secret the American tended to forget to eat, it's why he ate in such shocking amounts every meal, but he'd clearly been expecting the other to take a bit better care of himself after he'd gone to Germany. Though he'd also expected Alfred to stay in Canada. Watching Tony he shook his head annoyed, the cat didn't even like him that much in fact it clawed Matthew on more than one occasion. "You two need to just get married and get it over with already. No more drunken babbling about adopting a kid. Also big warning to the Germans, Alfred tends to have moments of insulting entire races, he doesn't mean it he's just too American."

"That's racist Mattie."

Gilbert bit his lip to hold back laughter at the brother's argument, clearly amused and able to relate to both of them. "Yeah, Matthias, marry the drunken cat lady. Ahem. Cat man? Nah, cat lady is much more appropriate, at least in _your _case." Matthias was only half amused by this; the other half was trying to figure out which one of the two of them Gilbert was deeming this 'special case.' "Alfred, are you attempting to get another cat _just _so you and Mattie can have a posse of three pets to gang up on Gilbert? 'Cause if that's the case, you're not getting a cat 'till you're married and moved in with me." _Indiscreetly agreeing with Matthew, check. _"But for now, yeah, we can talk about food later on. Most people would be glad to hit you with a frying pan."

Towards the front of the group, Ludwig sighed with apathy. "These guys are absolutely hopeless.. I need a few less blond friends. No, Gilbert needs less blond friends.. I just need friends in general.. Now I'm talking to myself, isn't that great? Feliciano. Speak to me." He turned his head as he summoned the Italian to his side. "How do you make friends so easily?"

"Matthew, your brother is an interesting person," Gilbert decreed, soon having split into a separate conversation with the blond. "Awesome, but definitely not as awesome as me, plus he hates me so that's not too good. Matthias does not have bad luck at all. Now, the question is, do I?" Obviously the alcohol was setting in a bit further as Gilbert flashed Matthew a lopsided grin. "Nice skills insulting him earlier, too."


	6. Heading Home

Matthew Leaned away gently shaking his head slightly at the male, though blushing weakly, "Stop that nonsense Gilbert. You need to go home and get to bed, and take a few aspirins most likely." The Canadian wrapped his arms around himself slightly ducking his head like he normally would to hide in the fur of his coat, "If you think anybody's lucky to get Alfred you have pretty low expectations Gilbert.

Pausing slightly the Italian bounced slightly falling in beside the German, notably having trouble keeping up with the brisk pace eventually merely latching onto the taller's arm so he'd get dragged slightly and had to therefore working less to keep up, oddly though the male could run faster if he wanted so why walking at the same pace was hard the world might never know "Ve, I don't really know Ludwigshafen! Grandpa says I'm just kinda like a magnet for both friends and trouble, whatever that means. I guess finding a common ground helps. Like me and Matthew like to cook, maybe not the same exact things all the time but it's a start I suppose…" Pausing the Italian bit his tongue slightly glancing at the german suddenly with a extremely worried and panicked expression, "Why are you asking suddenly? You aren't going to try and change who you are right?" His grip on the male's arm tightened, "You should never change for anybody! That's just lying and lying is bad!"

Alfred frowned glancing at Matthias at the frying pan comment walking along in silence for a moment, "No, I just want another cat if you must know. Tony hates everybody but me and you. Even Matthew, he'd clawed Mattie before," The American seemed to have sobered up yanking his hand free as though remembering suddenly he was meant to be mad at the Dane.

Gilbert grinned, having gotten just the emotion he wanted from Matthew. Flustering people was one of the things he was good at, like Antonio's tendency to make someone feel really good about himself of Francis's seduction. We should be some kind of club. Just famed for our romantic prowess. Pushing the thought aside, he decided to return to his conversation with Matthew. "I'm completely fine," he lied, still grinning (and almost smirking) like a maniac. "Maybe not in the morning but for now."

Ludwig couldn't help but smile at the Italian's antics; he could run a mile in minutes at the sight of someone deemed a threat but somehow managed to be unable to keep up. It confused him, but it was cute somehow. "Nein," he disagreed, not bothering to correct his mistake in using German rather than English as Feliciano had heard the word many times before, "I was just curious. Also.. Having more friends would be nice." There, I admitted it..

Matthias's expression noticeably changed, rather quickly in fact, his face falling into a frown. Dangit.. He stopped being drunk. Probably shouldn't have said the thing with the frying pan, but it's true.. "Alright then, seems fair. A cat that doesn't hate anyone would be great, though, just sayin'. What kind of cat are you looking for?" He might as well try and make conversation, as long as it was the kind that increased the chances of Alfred not hating him any more.

"Flirt when you're sober Gil." Shaking his head he began to fall back to the back of the group, "Maybe I'll listen when you don't reek of alcohol." Sinking into the background calmly he gave a slightly amused laugh calm enough to watch the others not bothered by his own silenced, though very intent on not letting Gilbert host a conversation while drunk not interested in it being forgotten the next morning.

Tilting his head slightly, curl bouncing just the slightest as he glanced up at the German. "I'm your friend right?" The Italian looked rather hopeful and excited about the idea, "And if you can imagine your life without a person they aren't a real friend, or is that dating? Maybe it's both…" Giving up walking entirely he allowed his body to be dragged along calmly gaze narrowing slightly in a what most people considered a dangerous manner because it meant the Italian had slowed down to think. "...Like would be weird without Ludwig, I don't like that idea at all, not one bit." Shaking his head as though to clear the though he glanced around quietly, "Making friends isn't too hard."

Glancing at him the American shrugged, "I don't know just yet… Maybe an American curl or…" Biting his lip slightly he glanced at his feet slightly, "A Norwegian Forest? There aren't any real know Danish cat breeds and… I think Tony would like one…" Glancing at the Dane with a nervous smile he tilted his head innocently, anyone who knew him could most likely read the fact a loud '_I miss you_' practically clung to the sentence for dear life.

The albino shrugged, his expression one that said "what can I say? I tried." With another laugh, he looked back up at Matthew. "Maybe I'll take you up on that offer sometime.. But I guess I can't just instantly be not drunk, either. Too awesome for that." He paused, narrowing his eyes at Matthew whom was clearly trying to avoid talking in favor of just observing. "Hey, ya know, the very least you could do is talk to me," he whined.

_Does he even hear what he's saying?_ Ludwig thought, blushing as he bit his lip. _Talking to people is hard.. Especially about things like this._ "Yes, of course, Feliciano," he finally agreed, actually agreeing and not just trying to tune the redhead out for once. "I guess that's a good thing to go by.. I mean, you don't necessarily have to be dating to feel that way but.. I guess it sort of applies to both." By now the German was getting really flustered. Finally he admitted (if a bit quietly), "It'd be hard to imagine life without you, or Gilbert, or even Gilbert's friends.."

The blond Dane's face lit up instantly. Not only the suggestion of a cat bred so close to home was simply adorable, but the expression on his face was clearly some kind of indirect apology. Of course, Alfred wouldn't apologize directly for his recent stubborn refusal to be a nice little boyfriend; Matthias felt both he and Alfred (as well as Gilbert) would understand that that would be quite a wound to his awesomeness. Rather he'd show it through some weird action like picking a subtly appreciated cat. "That sounds good," he happily agreed out loud. "Those are some pretty awesome cats. Lukas and Emil have got one.. though it's mostly Lukas's. It doesn't like dogs too much. At least the one it's been exposed to." He shuddered at the memory of Arkin's first time meeting Hanatamago. It was not a good day for either pet.

"Why don't you just talk Gil? I'm not good at communication… You know that.. I'm talked out," He wandered over slightly again yawning as he moved, "Brag about something or tell a joke, I don't care really Gilbert I'm the person who watches the situation." Lapsing back into the silence he watched the Prussian calmly with a slightly expecting gaze clearly having nothing more to say on the matter.

"Grandpa said once that the person the drives you insane the most, but is the person you'd go insane without is the perfect match. I honestly don't know what he meant, people don't annoy me though I think that was only one example I suppose," Tapping his fingers against the German's arms he glanced at the sky, pausing he turned his head back to Ludwig, "Has Ludwig ever been in love?" The question was blunt like everything else the Italian said, and he clearly took no notice of it invading the German's privacy, "Me and Matthew were talking and he said he thinks I like someone but I can't really tell though… You're suppose to know what love feels like but it's very weird and odd normally, leaves a funny feeling in people's chest and I don't know if I like it,"

Shaking his head he smiled slightly at the Dane's happy expression shaking his head with a sigh, "I think I'll get a norwegian then. A young one that can grow up around people and not hate them, maybe Tony will adjust to people," It was a hopeful wish that would most likely never come true though, "Isn't this the path you said we'd cut off at? Man I'm tired Matthias." Stretching the male yawned rather loudly glancing at his luggage calmly his mind already focusing on sleep, "Where am I sleeping by the way?"

"Good point," the Prussian agreed bluntly, shrugging. "You aren't the best at conversation. Or answering questions. Or socialization in general. You could definitely use some improvement in that department." He paused. "Okay, a joke it is. Three guys get stranded on an island. The natives of the island are cannibals and they capture the guys. The natives tell all three guys to go get some fruit from the beach. First guy comes back with some apples. So they say, "Now shove them up your butt without showing any emotion." He tries and he starts crying, so they kill him. The next guy comes back with.. What was it? Grapes, right. So they say "Now shove them up your butt without showing any emotion." He does. "Now hold it for two minutes." Well, he's doing good for the first minute, before he starts laughing. Up in heaven the first guy asks the second guy, "Why'd you laugh? You almost had it!" The second guy says "I saw the third guy coming back with two watermelons." Get it? Awesome joke, Francis told it to me.. Which may or may not explain the joke itself."

"That's.. An accurate description, I suppose," Ludwig stammered; it was getting harder to answer each question. He glanced over at the Italian, turning quickly when he noticed Feliciano looking up as well, before answering the next question. "Mm.. I.. I think so," he sighed. It was true, he didn't really remember all too well.. The memories of his childhood were hazy at best, and so it was hard to give Feliciano a direct answer. "Really? Maybe you are.." The blond trailed off awkwardly.

"Yeah, this is it," Matthias confirmed, motioning to the left, where the street went down another block before turning right again and leading down a road that most likely housed his home. He winced at the next question, though. "I actually.. Don't know. I don't spend very much time at my house at all, I'm not sure about much of the layout besides my bedroom, the living room and the kitchen.. So it may or may not have a guest room. Like I said, I'm not sure." He glanced over at the American, a look of 'um you're dating an idiot but what can you do' fairly obvious on his face,

Wincing visibly Matthew shook his head a faint noise of '_maple_' escaping as he attempted to forget the joke entirely, "That's not really funny Gil unless you've got a painful sense of humor…" Glancing around he sighed biting his lip, "No more jokes Gil. It seems your 'French' friend isn't French enough to tell a properly perverted joke. I mean I don't get why everything in life is about sex, well except sex, but come on at least people should have good innuendoes and jokes." Looking up at the Prussian he paused, "And this is why I don't converse well… Uh… Where'd the other two go?" Glancing back to make sure Alfred and Matthias had gone their own path, he looked at Gilbert, "I'm serious about Alfred making a ton of racist jokes, he once played 'Gay or European' for 5 hours after meeting the British neighbor, and after meeting poor Matthias, I have a feeling he might have a worse song in store this time…"

Feliciano didn't seemed to notice the taller German growing nervous instead choosing to keep rambling on, "I don't know… Maybe I am… What if he doesn't like me back though Ludwig? What would I do than?" Tilting his head he scrambling back to his feet to walk again, "I don't know what to do and Grandpa's advice didn't help and Lovino just said he wanted to kill him…" Pausing he suddenly bounced, "Can you carry me?! Please Ludwig my feet are starting to hurt."

"You don't know your own house? Really Matthias?" Shaking his head the American broke into a slight laugh looking at Tony, "Wanta invade Matthias's room with me than Tony?" He broke into another round of laughter when the cat actually seemed to nod in agreement. Luckily the American was starting to look like he'd merely collapse and fall asleep the instant he found a bed to lay down on, though even then the American showed little interest in other activities involving a bed luckily if he was tired or even in general the American seemed to prefer the watching a movie and relax over anything. Though he'd once, okay more than once but that's not the point, insisted upon using Matthias as a pillow.

The Prussian shrugged. "That one wasn't exactly one of his best, but it was the best that came to mind. Did you forget I'm drunk?" He smirked incredulously up at the suddenly worried Canadian. "I can seriously see your brother doing that though. I can't think of what he'd play when he met Matthias.. Though I do recall now that Matthias insisted on playing 'German Sparkle Party' in every car we were in for at _least _three weeks after I met him and claimed he was 'carrying on his boyfriend's legacy.' I didn't get it at the time, but.."

As Feliciano spoke about this unknown male, Ludwig couldn't help but get more and more curious. Who was it that was so important to Feliciano that he'd ramble to both Ludwig and Matthew about it? He nearly jumped when he heard Feliciano's question, and it took him a few more moments to register it in his mind that he'd even been asked one. Of course, he was practical above all else. "Are you serious, Feliciano? You haven't even been walking most of the time.. Oh, alright." As always, he gave in. Ludwig let Gilbert and Matthew ahead and leaned down a bit in order to properly piggyback the childish Italian.

Matthias couldn't help but laugh at the cat as well, you'd almost think Tony really was an alien with all the invading he agreed to do. The blond was pretty sure that the cat had agreed to 'invade' Germany before they came here. "Seems fair," he agreed when he'd stopped laughing. "You do look really tired. Hungry?" Most of what Matthias ate these days- dare he admit to Alfred- was little more than fast food and the occasional bowl of cereal or toast, and it'd be a nice change to cook something or even order a pizza for once.

"He once just put on the stereotype song to insult every person in a room." Yawning slightly Matthew pulled on his rather heavy coat he carried around, despite the heat in the air, and quietly ducked his head to hide behind the fur around the neck calmly. Next to his loud and insanely childish brother the Canadian might as well have been invisible at the bar if Alfred hadn't decided to send the Prussian over to help with his hand. Glancing over his hand the Canadian smiled faintly before giving the Prussian a quick hug, though rapidly retreating, "Thank you for somehow managing to not forget about me, it's a nice change of pace I suppose." He didn't even bring up the fact that Alfred had just walked off without even a goodbye in his siblings direction having very clearly forgotten about the Canadian. Folding his arms close the Canadian shied away again the hug merely a one time thing, it was a bit of a wonder how he'd been getting Feliciano to not hug him as clingy as the Italian was with new people.

Clapping his hands the Italian wasted no time scrambling onto the German's back wrapping his arms around the male's shoulders with a faint yawn. Soon enough though he sparked back into chatting and asking the German questions, all loosely tied around the former subject that he'd seemed hooked on since talking to Matthew about whoever he was crushing on. Pausing after a while the shorter male went quiet before resting his head against the other male's back, "...What does Ludwig think of me? Do I annoy you? You act like I do sometimes."

Alfred paused before his expression practically lit up at the mention of food, "Dude I'm totally starving bro. What are we going to eat?" Both Tony and Alfred now had full focus on Matthias again. Whatever Alfred ate, Tony ate. Both seemed to have iron stomachs since half the stuff they ate shouldn't technically be edible, and seventy-five percent was junk-food. Needless to say fifty percent of the seventy-five technically shouldn't be edible. Leading to the vet being confused at how Tony remained a perfectly healthy, despite vocal 'issues', cat at a good age of about seven and the doctor confused of how the twenty-one year old American hadn't hit the bricks having a very early heart-attack. In fact Alfred seemed as healthy as a person who ate a balanced diet.

"Completely understandable," Gilbert answered nonchalantly. He was not one to subtly insult people either; he made it obvious when he wanted to humiliate someone in any way, shape or form. Whether it was obvious to everyone was a case-by-case situation. He'd admittedly not been a very nice person- okay, he'd always been not so nice, but he was much better now- when he was in middle school and his first few years of high school. He'd made plenty of enemies since then, and purposefully ticked off quite an assortment of people. Not to mention making friends he shouldn't of made.. All that aside, he was glad to have the friends he had now.

Now that his face was hidden from Feliciano's view, Ludwig could relax and smile more easily as he listened to the Italian's rapid speech. Somehow, though, it seemed Feliciano just couldn't shake the topic from his mind, only causing Ludwig to grow increasingly and almost annoyingly curious as to whom Feliciano was talking about. _I'm jealous, aren't I.. Admit it to yourself, Ludwig, you're not a wimp. You are jealous. _Needless to say, the question struck him a little by surprise. "Well.. Yes and no," he finally answered, putting some thought into it. "You're always there to talk to, but sometimes you're not a very good listener and talk to much. You're the only one besides Gilbert- who rarely comes- who will come running with me in the morning, but you can't keep up and you start to complain way too fast. You make incredible pasta but it's all you ever want to eat. But.. I think the good things make up for the bad things." He bit his lip. He didn't want to make it awkward, considering there was already someone Feliciano was infatuated with, but...

"I don't know, I'm not a great cook, really," he shrugged. "But maybe we can order a pizza? That's a plausible solution, right?" He thought fondly to himself that anyone else would be eluded by the fact that 'a person like him would use a word such as plausible.' That was something he and Alfred had in common- the whole world thought both of them were idiots. It was fine, though, if they themselves didn't care. "Tony will eat the same thing, I'm guessing. You know what, I've never wondered before, but what would happen if you were to eat chocolate? Would you still share with Tony?" That was another thing they had in common. Spontaneously blurting out thoughts the moment they were born.

Pausing to glance around Matthew cast a glance back at Feliciano and Ludwig with a slightly knowing gaze before turning back to looking around, "I hope Kumajiro is alright, He's never been left alone this long before… I'm kinda glad he didn't get to see the hockey game, he's a worse sore loser than I am." Shaking his head the male picked up speed slightly a bit worried about his pet now.

Tightening his grip on the German Feliciano frowned slightly the air around him seeming to tense slightly at each complaint. Though the comments seemed to rather quickly pull the Italian right off the topic. After a few moments of silence his grip loosened greatly, "What do you want to eat in the morning? Me and Matthew were going to make breakfast again," He showed no hints at returning to the previous conversation or replying to the statements with weak defenses like he normally would instead choosing to wander to a entirely new topic.

Lifting his head with a raised eyebrow the American grinned, "Pizza sounds like a great idea," Reaching into his pocket the male pulled out a chocolate bar taking a bite before snapping off a piece. There was no hesitation for Tony to latch onto the hand holding the chocolate with both paws to pull it close to grab the candy both males cat a 'must you even ask' look to the Dane. "We eat every meal together. What I eat Tony eats. The vet said last visit that he's shocked Tony is even alive if he eats like me… But if I eat a meal without Tony he won't eat for weeks. He once lost 5 pounds because I ate lunch at school, I swear he knows everything it seems. Though I'd never feed another cat like I feed Tony," The last part quickly added, Tony was different to the American and everyone that met the cat. It was only solidified by the grey mass of fur having just showed up near a suspected 'UFO' fans dream land. Perfectly fed, groomed, and healthy. Luckily another fact to note was he'd introduced the cat to a sleeping Matthias, with a entire crowd of people around them who'd all had horrid first meetings with the cat, only to have the cat curl up on the sleeping males chest for a nap. Since that day the cat hated everybody but Alfred, Matthias, and the vet.

Glancing at Matthias from his shoulder Tony seemed to, well actually he fully looked to be, contemplating something. Leaping onto the other man's shoulder he promptly pushed his head into the Dane's hair, clearly not caring if he messed up the man's hair given how he merely face planted into it, like he would when he use to worry about Alfred after a scare when the Canadian and American father nearly passed away after a car wreck. The incident having left the American, who'd lost his mother to a break in(though he'd told Matthias it'd been an accident and left it at that) two years, earlier a nervous nothing noticeably was that outstanding to take notice of in the American's attitude, except still seeming a bit jumpy about being reunited with the other. Letting out a faint meow the cat pushed against the Dane's head slightly trying to get his attention soon jumping down to climb onto the bag Alfred was pulling along chewing at the pocket until Alfred picked him back up, "Sorry about him he's been acting weird for awhile I can't figure out what's wrong."

"Really?" It actually surprised Gilbert that a dog could take interest in sports, and it was safe to say a dog getting worked up over sports shocked him. Not to mention the fact that the dog had never been left alone for even a few hours. "That's pretty odd. You and your brother have a weird assortment of pets. I'd ask how you managed to care for them, but my brother takes care of three dogs on his own.." _Maybe I should get a dog? Mm.. Nah. At least for now._

Ludwig almost seemed relieved at the change of topic, but nonetheless he couldn't stop thinking about it. _He changed the subject, it shouldn't matter any more.._ "I don't know, what are you two planning on? It doesn't matter to me.. Though a sausage of some type would be nice.." If there was one thing (besides beer, wurst and his dogs, of course) the German really could talk about, it was food. Though he rarely demonstrated it to anyone but himself and occasionally Gilbert, Ludwig was actually a really great cook, especially in the cakes and pastries department. Breakfast wasn't his forte, but he still enjoyed discussing it.

"You've got quite the odd cat, but he's a pretty awesome cat, ya know?" Matthias grinned, reaching out to ruffle the cat's head fur as the feline had done to his own hair. "What's so interesting about that bag, huh Tony?" He paused for a moment as if waiting for an answer before letting out a defeated sigh. "Things would be so much easier if people could communicate with animals.. Even Tony, who's definitely a special case, can't speak English and we can't speak cat _or _whatever the heck your weird cat speaks."

Breaking into a light laugh as they approached the house Matthew shook his head, "He's about a hundred times worse Gilbert! He holds a hockey stick and wears a jersey while watching the games. But Tony is a lot weirder than Kumajiro. You can't even consider comparing the two really." Shaking with faint laughter Matthew paused at the front door listening to Kumajiro's barking quietly, "He's still awake that's for sure. If you two are going to head to bed I think I might stay up and read or even get on my laptop. Might do that even if you two aren't heading to bed…"

"Okay. I'll talk to Matthew about it in the morning than I suppose. We didn't really have anything planned out." Sliding off the German's back the Italian glanced around before giving a slight wave of goodbye, "I'll see you guys tomorrow then I suppose!" He barely cast a second glance at them despite it normally taking forever to be rid of the male taking off for home.

Ignoring the protesting cat, who seemed focused on getting Matthias's attention to Alfred's bag, said man glanced at Matthias, "Tony's just got a few issues bro. All that's in there are my clothes and laptop," Tony watched Matthias with an annoyed expression meowing in protest after the statement of what was in the bag, causing Alfred to pause and roll his eyes cursing slightly about how he should have brought a carrier for the cat, "As I was saying, my clothes and laptop, with a few flyers for something I was looking into a while ago. Nothing you need to worry about, I've just been looking into a few ideas to stay occupied while you're… Well here in Germany," Pausing Alfred glanced at his shoes, "and I'm sorry about not visiting before you got on the plane. It was like watching it happen would just.. I dunno make it more… real? It didn't feel like it had been happening at first. After the first two days after you said you'd planned to leave I was praying it'd been some cruel and evil joke."

He shrugged. "I dunno, it's not all that late quite yet.. I don't go to bed all that early. Too many people I know who are just waking up then so I'd better talk while I can. Not so much Francis and Antonio.. just some random people. It's pretty much 2 AM for everyone at the same time, especially now when everyone's in Germany because of that university that opened up. Like we said, that's why Matthias is here, and so are a lot of the people I know. But before that I fell into the habit of staying up to talk to everyone." His shoulders lifted and fell again. "Anyway, I'll probably be up at least a little longer. Let's just hope Kuma isn't too mad." Ludwig was already unlocking the door to the large house to let the remaining three travelers in.

"That escalated quickly," said blond muttered as they entered the house. It was true; what had started as a small trip to get a few drinks had turned into a huge outing with six people and an alien cat. Ludwig actually didn't doubt that the creature was paranormal. _Not to mention all the drama with Matthias and Alfred.. and Matthew and Feliciano are such girls sometimes.. even my brother and Matthias went girly on us. I worry for their sanity.. and mine.. _With a sigh he set his keys down on the coffee table and went to the kitchen.

"I don't think I'd be smart enough to pull off something that bad," Matthias chuckled weakly. He didn't, really. There was nothing he wanted less than to hurt Alfred but it was really hard for him to tell him that he was going away to Germany for so long. "I trust you, but you better not be doing anything stupid. You've screwed up before but never something as bad as, well, moving to Germany to go to college and only giving a week's warning.. Gosh, that sounds terrible when I put it into words. Let's move on.. Tony, quit biting Alfred's bag."

Matthew squeaked, in a bit of a girly manner, when Kumajiro nearly bowl him over. There was a few second of flailing around before the canine turned to look at Gilbert with the expression of a parent wondering why their kid was out so late. It took a few moments for the canine to follow his owner back up the steps to the guest bedroom barking from time to time until they vanished out of sight. Grabbing a book out of his still unpacked bags the Canadian practically collapsed onto the bed curling up under a blanket, patterned as the Canadian flag.

Alfred had frozen in place now, refusing to move his feet at all, biting his lip and staring at his feet for a few nervous seconds. His gaze darted between Matthias and the bag. Black rimmed glasses in his pocket instead of on his face. "...What would count as 'stupid' in your dictionary? I mean I've thought about it for a while, and was going to tell you but then you left so suddenly and I didn't get the chance to… I guess it'd count as stupid in some books? Maybe not mine but, yah know." Tony leaned against Alfred's head slightly before going back after the bag in order the emphasize the '_stupid_' part. "Yeah sounds stupid when put to words.. Oh god." Pulling Tony close nervously Alfred glanced at Matthias with a faintly worried expression, somewhere between 'I'm being serious' and 'I think you may need to stop this idea'. "I knew you would have killed me if I said it over a phone but… I guess the idea is madder than a fox in a hen house but, I'm really considering it I suppose. I know I talk a lot about finishing school and buying a house and kids, all that Hollywood movie stuff."

The Prussian bit his lip slightly, laughing a bit at the rambunctious canine. He couldn't say so for his brother's dogs, _especially _when they were puppies, but Gilbird had never literally tackled him when he came into the house. Yes, the bird had flown fairly quickly downstairs and promptly claimed his head after he'd taken that vacation in France and decided against bringing him, but he could say 100% positively that Gilbird had never knocked him over or come close to doing so. Speaking of, there he was, faithful little ball of yellow coming down to sit on his shoulder. "You know what? We should introduce you to Matthew," he decided, grinning when the bird have a pleasant 'chirp' of agreement.

Matthias was, of course, immediately worried by Alfred's rambling about his plans. What on earth was so bad that it was hard to put into words without sounding stupid? Suicide? _Matthias. They don't make fliers for suicide. Also Alfred's a happy go lucky freak half the time. _So it couldn't be suicide. But, it was something that may allegedly jeopardize the Hollywood ending Alfred was always dreaming about. Naturally he couldn't just sit here contemplating it; he had to give Alfred something. "Well, I don't know.. I guess joining the military or something? That in itself isn't a bad thing, obviously, but what if world war three starts or something and you go off to war and it's that 'I'm a cool, strong soldier with a boyfriend back home and I can't wait to go back to him and that's the reason I keep fighting' kinda crap and then you get killed off? Just like in the movies?" Matthias was admittedly getting a little too sappy over this, but there was no turning back now.

Pulling a small stuffed Polar bear close the Canadian yawned slightly reading his book over the stuffed animals head. His glasses had begun to slide down his face silently nodding off. Matthew was never on the stay up normally when he'd been back home. Watching Kumajiro curl up at his feet he pulled the blanket up to his shoulder quietly. Almost he began to blend into the surroundings lazily. The bright red of the blanket long since fading away making it look like the male would look like he'd perfectly belong in a Canadian cabin.

Alfred glanced at his bag leaning over to pull something out, "Matthias I… Getting killed and World War III isn't a part of the plan?" The male sat a camo hat on his head staring at the ground nervously. Even at this point Tony had abandoned his perch on the American's shoulder, leaving his owner open to be yelled at, or at the very least just leaving his owner standing there alone. In all honesty? It'd made perfect sense, Alfred had suddenly dropped a decent amount of weight, it wasn't something he'd just tell Matthias over a phone either. Shifting almost nervously he lifted his head giving a weak smile, "You're the first person I'm telling and… I didn't think calling you suddenly and saying "Hey honey! Yeah I'm joining the military expect my home in a coffin" would be the best idea." Biting his tongue the male paused looking at Matthias from under the hat.

Gilbert began the 'challenging' trek upstairs; it probably would've been easier if he wasn't drunk and tired, but he was too awesome to give up now. Not to mention he had a little yellow cheerleader chirping his encouragement from his shoulder. Finally he made it upstairs, and proceeded to creep quietly down the hallway. His brother did not like to be awoken. "Matt?" He murmured, peeking into the Canadian's guest room. _Asleep again. And still adorable. _"Guess you'll have to wait till tomorrow, little buddy," he chuckled, referring to Gilbird as he softly shut the door and retreated to his own bedroom.

Matthias's eyes flew wide open at the sight of what Tony had been anxious about all night. He honestly hadn't been expecting this. In fact, in Alfred's case joining the circus may have been more plausible. Now that he thought of it, though, it kinda made sense. Alfred was one of the most patriotic people he'd ever known. It made sense that he'd want to help his country out. But.. He had nothing to say. Alfred F Jones was joining the military and may or may not be killed. Sure, it was a long shot, considering as far as Matthias knew the chances of Alfred getting involved in some war were slim, but what if he was right? What if world war three really _did_ start and Alfred was caught in the middle of it? There was so much that could go wrong.. "Alfred, I.." For once in his life, Matthias was struck speechless.

Despite the silence luckily meaning Matthias hadn't taken a role of anger Alfred had begun to nervously fidget in place. After a moment the American barely considered what he was doing before he grabbed Tony and dropped his bags shouting 'I'll just get a hotel' and taking off. It barely took a few moments for the American to vanish around the corner, only carrying his backpack and Tony. For the next for moments it honestly didn't matter where he ended up, just that he escaped the moment and Matthias for just a little while. Let things settle in. It wasn't like he'd officially joined the military. It was a thought, an idea. A stupid little plan he might go through with. Rapid thoughts of getting a plane back home flew through his head as he slowed having run himself clean out of breath, and plain lost. Glancing at his phone quietly he ducked into a small alley to tray and wait out the night, or find Kiku. The Japanese man had 'come' with him(After shouting this is kidnapping the entire way through the airport) to Germany. Mainly since Alfred thought a Japanese man in Germany would be hilarious. Wheezing faintly against the cool night air Alfred pressed against to wall like it was a life line. There'd been no reason to run, but he knew Matthias was most likely unhappy or upset, and that idea alone made him cringe.

He was frozen in shock for those few moments it took Alfred to turn the corner, but when the Dane finally realized what just happened he immediately sprung after his boyfriend. "Alfred!" He called pointlessly after him, already almost out of breath. _I need to get in shape.. There's a lot of things I need to do. Now is not the time.. Is that.. _"Rain?" He finished out loud, half scoffing. "You wanted a Hollywood` ending, Al..." It only took a few seconds for him to notice the tune drifting through the air, if a bit quietly because of the gradually increasing downpour. "What the heck, Al? Did you seriously have this all planned out?" He skidded to a stop when he found himself completely lost. _That's one of those things I need to do. Learn my way around this city. _"Alfred?" He tested, giving it another shot. "Al? Hmmf.. I'm gonna find you cowering in an alleyway somewhere, aren't I.." With a sigh, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. _I could call him.. Would he answer? I could try and book him a hotel.. But I don't know how long he's staying in Germany, if he's staying at all, or if he already has one..._ He'd been traveling at a slower pace since he'd gotten lost and paused when he heard a quiet shuffling from his right. _An alleyway.. Is it gonna be a cat or a rat or- wait, was that golden blond hair? _"Alfred!" Without thought, he ran into the alley.

Alfred lifted his head at the repeated calling of his name yelping in faint surprise yelling something close to 'Who's playin' the piano?!' taking off again, at a notably slower run. Sliding into a rather strange looking, well overly fancy, hotel Alfred shouted a hello to the Polish looking male, okay stereotyping a bit, but the male like totally looked Polish, sliding to scramble around another corner. Rushing the get in the door he about practically slammed closed and locked behind him as he nearly collapsed forward into a pile. Rolling over to face the door he scramble back a bit as though waiting for it to fall forward.

Matthew paused hearing a light knock on the door. Rolling out of the bed he slipped down the stairs holding a hockey stick close. Glancing around he sighed no seeing either German, though hearing a very excited Italian. Popping the door open the male froze raising an eyebrow, and for once in his life his voice, with a shout of "This was Alfred's racist plan!?" Glancing the Japanese man in front of him up and down he, carefully avoiding touching the other, herded the male to the couch, "Oh god I can't believe Al. He got you on a plane-" he was cut off by the quiet mumble of 'it was kidnapping I think. Not sure knowing Westerns.' and 'the Italian tried to hug me.' The Japanese man looked a bit, well terrified to say the least. He'd gotten off the plane, after a bit reluctantly getting on, only to watch Alfred charge off.

"Alfred!" Matthias exclaimed again, taking off even more slowly after the surprisingly agile American. _Is it his junk food diet?_ "Al! Alfie!" Within a few minutes he emerged into the parking lot of an enourmous hotel, just in time to see the door swing shut much harder than it should have. "There he is.." He jogged up to the door, giving a short greeting to the Polish blond at the desk and the Lithuanian busboy (only briefly wondering why the only people from the same country he knew were in Alfred's family) and walked, more politely, down the hallway. Suddenly he paused and turned to go back to the lobby. "Uh, hallo," he greeted the man in German. It was a German hotel after all. "Wissen Sie, welche Zimmer Alfred F Jones bleibt in?" He was given a heavily accented reply before starting quickly down the hallway to room 203. "Al?" He called softly, knocking.

When they heard the noise downstairs, both Gilbert and Ludwig woke up at the same time. That in itself was slightly frightening, but what made it worse was that they ran head first into each other as they exited their rooms, both yelled the same slew of German curses, and stumbled backwards at the same time. The similarities ended there, because instead of complaining Ludwig stood up and stumbled drowsily down the staircase. He blinked in surprise to see a Japanese man he didn't know; the other half of the surprise was brought on by a certain quiet Canadian's raised voice. Gilbert, on the other hand, had naturally first checked Matthew's room to make sure no harm had come to him. What he found instead of a sleeping Canadian, though, was an old-fashioned flip phone. Being the awesome, curious Prussian he was, he had to pick it up and look through it (it was late, how was I remember that this was Matthew's personal property?) He was surprised to find a few very old video files.

Alfred paused staring at the door in faint shock, "Go away for now Matthias." Pressing back into the wall quietly Alfred glared at the door slightly with a worried expression. Biting his lip the man stood after awhile his footsteps reluctantly and quietly approaching the door, slipping it open just enough to glance out wearing a faintly panicked expression, like after Allen and Mark would chase him down the road almost as though the chase had given him slight post traumatic stress, before pushing it back closed his breathing able to be heard through the door almost. Tony sat on the bad grooming his ruffled fur quietly clearly ignorant to his owner's panicked stress.

Pausing Matthew heading to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, moving quick enough to not notice his old flip phone had tumbled out of his pocket and onto the ground by the side of the guest room bed, laying almost tauntingly half hidden by the male's blanket. It was casually flipped open screaming old school. Something most people wouldn't get caught dead carrying and clearly perfectly explaining the pitch change it gave Matthew's voice to make his sound louder, by merely overlaying the normal tune with a light static. Even after walking back through in a bit more of a calmer demeanor he seemed clueless to the device's grand escape from him. Setting the water in the other's hand Matthew fell back to sit quietly

Glancing between the Italian beside him and the German Kiku stood heading over to Ludwig with a serious expression. Pointing back at the innocent Feliciano and speaking it a rather accent laced voice the following statement sounded torn between a child telling on another child and a fully serious and frightened statement, "He tried to hug me… and why isn't he wearing pants?" Glancing back at Feliciano, Kiku shifted in a nervous fashion looking away quickly given Feliciano really wasn't wearing anything except boxers and a rather feminine pink sleeveless shirt.

******Matthias almost started to protest. Why should he have to wait? He had just chased Alfred likely more than a mile in the rain! But then he paused with a short sigh of irritation. If he knocked again, tried to open it, or called out to Alfred, he'd most likely make things worse. This point was proven by the fact that he noted Alfred peeking out for a second before retreating back into the hotel room. ****_Retreat into a hotel room. Never thought I'd think that. _****"Alfred? Al? Are you sure you're okay?" He asked hesitantly. ****_Can he not do that? He's really worrying me now.. I shouldn't have said anything. No, I should've said something. Like "It's okay" or "you can if you want to." But no, I'm an idiot,_**


	7. Video Evidence

The second part to the Cross Country Letter alternate Universe though I suppose it can be a stand-alone of sorts please note this is a LONG story still being roleplayed between me and Oliver's Cupcakes involving the main pairings PruCan, DenAme, and GerIta.

We're on our third google doc now due to lag from the 20k+ word counts.

The normally noisy airport was actually rather quiet as the tired passengers flooded off the planes to gather their luggage. Matthew bit his lower lip slightly as people unknowingly pushed the Canadian around, his near violet eyes a bit frantic, as he scrambled over to the luggage area, mumbling out multiple sorrys and pardons as he went along, to grab his bags pulling them close as he headed to find Kumajiro. Normally he wouldn't have brought the canine along but it was him or an overprotective American brother who'd threatened about twenty or so times, though Matthew lost count after the twenty-third threat, while Matthew had been on the phone to 'slaughter that damn Prussian if he hurt his brother in the slightest'. Needless to say for once in Matthew's life he'd wished Alfred had ignored him like he always had instead of pitching a fit over the idea of Matthew visiting a stranger in

Though he'd also refused to allow the German to come visit them in Canada.

Tucking his head close as he walked Matthew shifted his heavy coat to the other arm silently fixing a button on the red plaid shirt he'd been wearing. As the plane ride had gone on despite the other passengers complaining that they'd been freezing for him it'd gotten far too hot on the plane. This forcing the Canadian to abandon his heavy fur lined jacket for a plaid button up and white sleeveless shirt.

Sighing with relief as his eyes landed on Kumajiro's cage pulling out the large canines collar and lead. He hadn't told Gilbert about the dog coming with him given the fact it'd been a last second choice made by his brother, so that if something happened he'd have protection. At this point however he'd begun to worry about the fact Gilbert had stated they owned 3 other dogs, though Kumajiro was a giant softy around other animals, he wasn't sure about the German family's canines. Letting the canine slip out he headed along to find a corner to sit down in sliding down the wall to sit tucked into the corner near the entrance with a loud yawn slipping earbud in turning on his old mp3 player. It wasn't long before his dog stretched out across his legs to guard over it's tired owner.

Rubbing his eyes, Gilbert quite literally stumbled into the airport. The day had not begun so well. The night before, he'd set an alarm for the purpose of waking him up on time to greet his Canadian friend. Naturally it was pretty early, and dark, so he ignored the loud music as skillfully as if it were a school day. He drifted awake just 20 minutes before he had to arrive, suddenly realizing he needed to leave, and fast. So he rushed his breakfast and getting ready in general, and the results were not pretty.

Here he was, a very tired Prussian with uncombed, stark white hair, tired red eyes (they were brightly lit nonetheless, he was rather excited), and wearing a very mismatched outfit consisting of green sweatpants and a bright blue tank top in an airport at.. 2 in the morning? To put it simply, he was not exactly prepared. This, however, did not stop him from standing on his tiptoes, attempting to find Matthew in the meager crowd. "What am I looking for again?" he murmured under his breath. "Blond, violet-blue eyes, stray curl..." He let out a sudden gasp of exclamation when he pinpointed the person who was probably who Gilbert was looking for. He could only see his head- too many dang tall people- but the sleepy blond seemed to match the description he'd been given and shown. "Matthew!" He called out softly, having a strange conflicted desire to both get Matthew's attention and not wake him up. He actually looked kind of cute when he s- Gil, you're tired, not drunk. Shut up and move. Pushing his way through the crowd, he made his way over to Matthew, mouth opening in surprise when he noticed the enourmous white dog draped across the Canadian's lap. He was not often scared by animals (or anything in general, really, he was too awesome to be scared often), but this was one large mutt he was not willing to mess with. This was coming from someone who teased his brother's golden retriever, German Shepherd, and Doberman like those expressionless palace guards. I should not worry about Matt ever getting mugged or kidnapped or even murdered for that matter..

Lifting it's head from his owner's lap the canine growled faintly, fur slowly starting to rise in faint aggression of having someone approaching his sleeping owner, before the growl caught in it's throat head tilting to stare at the Prussian quietly as though processing who he was looking out his tongue soon lolling at as the canine returned to a state of relaxing and slobbering slightly. Kumajiro may not have been the best guard dog in the world, as Matthew had stated 'he couldn't tell a cat from a beaver' even showing a picture of the large dog trying to play with a wild beaver last winter, but he'd spent enough time staring over his owner's shoulder when he'd replied to messages, or when Matthew had left a picture open on the computer on day, to recognize the only albino his owner had ever spoken to. For that matter the only person Matthew had spoken, well typed, to on a near daily schedule. Lowering his head slightly the dog's gaze darted over the German before the growl started back up in a more playful manner. Seconds ticked past before the canine began to bark, practically lunging to stand up and pulling against the end of it's leash.

As though someone had just blown a airhorn in his ear, or well woken the giant dog that'd been in his lap, Matthew's body jerked letting out a slightly startled shout of protest, trying to pull Kumajiro back to keep the canine from lunging for the Prussian in play. It was clear that he honestly didn't see Gilbert at first, in too much of a panic trying to restrain the 100+ pound ball of white fur trying to tackle the Prussian. Casting a glance around he pushed himself to his feet pulling Kumajiro close with a slight sigh. His body was slouched slightly as he rubbed his eyes the hand holding Kumajiro grabbing blindly to secure around his bag.

Looking up after a moment he froze when his eyes landed on the albino Prussian. "Ah…" His voice paused glancing around where he'd fallen asleep before at Kumajiro. "...Hello?" His voice was a lot quieter than over the phone, where he'd been normally shouting over the havoc of his household. It was clearly no joke that thanks to his voice people forgot about him, he was silent for a moment looking the male over with a raised eyebrow, "Did you forget?"

Gilbert jumped back slightly at the dog's sudden- very sudden, in fact- movement, but quickly steadied himself. He had to strain himself a little to hear; it surprised him to see how quiet Matthew's voice really was, but he went on thinking like Classic Gilbert Beilschmidt anyway. Glad to see I'm not the only tired one. Now let's see, I could answer like a normal person or... "Now that's rather offensive of you, assuming I forgot just because I'm wearing an outfit that could win the Worst Planned Outfit of the Year award. And to answer, no, I didn't forget you, I instinctively shut out the sound of my alarm. I mean, come on, can't expect me to wake up at two AM to loud German rock music and think, 'oh, need to go to the airport.' This is not normal." He paused for a moment when he realized how rude he sounded. Ordinarily he wouldn't care, but.. "Sorry 'bout that. Like I said, I'm just a bit tired. And rambly. Also I'm talking loudly in sarcastic English in the middle of a German airport." He cast a quick glance around. It was true, he was getting a few strange looks. Naturally he just grinned back at everyone, casually petting the top of Kumajiro's head (which he didn't even have to stoop down to do.)

"Right then, it seems we've gotten this far with little to no complications. So I guess we should get going. Got your stuff?" Gilbert paused again. "Need any help with it?" He was uncharacteristically polite this morning; whether it was because he was tired or something else was up for interpretation. Nonetheless, he was offering help and if any mortal was awesome enough to be deemed worthy of the great Gilbert Beilschmidt's assistance, they'd better accept. Or at least that was the way it worked in his head most of the time. During the small, slightly awkward pause, he yawned; not as obnoxiously as he could have but not a cute yawn either. Why he was considering the attractiveness of his yawn he'd probably never know.

Matthew froze at that glancing at Gilbert quietly for a moment with a startled expression on his face, before he was suddenly moving his hand to mute a faint, almost impossible to hear at that, giggle that broke loose. His shoulders shook faintly with the noise instantly causing the curl on his head to bounce slightly, defying every known law of gravity with an almost practiced ease as it normally did. Biting his lip slightly to stop the sound he shook his head, "If that's as offensive as you get when you let your mouth run without your brain being able to catch up well… I think this will all go over fine. At least I can hope." The idea of Gilbert thinking that that little outburst would seem to be rude, or even a bit offensive, amused Matthew. After growing up around Alfred the small statement from Gilbert didn't sound all that offensive. "I'm sorry about," The word about sounded a lot closer to 'aboot' then about thanks to his accent, "the accusation but it did look like you'd forgotten honestly… Though you could win a worst dressed contest. But calling a Canadian offensive? What has the world come to? Oh and I'm so sorry about Kumajiro, it was a large, 100 pound lazy canine or a 130+ American football player who's actually taking the take to time to notice me just to hate you."

Straightening his back as he stretched the male yawned covering his mouth with his forearm slightly before snatching up his other bag looking at Gilbert, "No thanks I've got it-" He cut off when he was staring straight over the German's head glancing down slightly covering his mouth to stop a slight laugh though his shoulder shook faintly for a second before stopping, "Oh… You're… short. I'm so sorry I laughed but… I just thought you'd been about the same height a second ago…Verzeihenv Sie?" The male tilted his head hoping the use of the German phrase would help fix the mistake. Though it was slightly softer sounding, read; a lot softer, compared to a German's accent and voice. Tugging at his shirt in a slightly nervous fashion the male held his coat close quietly watching Gilbert from behind it quietly with a innocent expression. His glasses still sat crooked from his hassle to get up and control Kumajiro.

"I'm glad," Gilbert announced in reply. "Offending Canadians in general is not awesome in the least." He gave Matthew, whom at the moment was at eye level with him, a cocky grin. "No problem with the dog, he just surprised me. I'm sure West's dogs'll get along with him just fine. I guess a fluffy dog is better than an annoying brother any day, right?" He paused as Matthew straightened up and furrowed his eyebrows together, tilting his head back slightly.

The expression on Gilbert's face was priceless, plain and simple. It was an insane mixture of surprise, pure shock, disappointment, and a cross between mock and heartfelt emotional injury. The reaction was less due to what Matthew had said than for the hundredth time embracing the fact that there were a lot of people in this world taller than him, many of which were probably cute Canadians- Gilbert. Shut the hell up. Just stop thinking. No thoughts allowed before 9:00 in the morning. The albino shook his head to clear it. "Nah, it's fine. I'm, eh, used to it. I used to be really tall to everyone and then we all went and turned fifteen and then woosh." He made a dramatic swooping motion through the air with his hand, arcing up above his head. "Everyone figured 'Hey, let's keep growing and leave the awesome guy in the dust.' Honestly. It just means my awesomeness is denser." Gilbert seemed quite pleased with this interpretation, and perhaps it was best to leave it at that. "Okay, if you've got your bags then I guess we should go. Maybe you could learn a bit more German while you're here. Your accent's a bit soft right now."

Gilbert turned to lead the way out of the airport, subconsciously walking more on his toes than on his flat feet to increase his height. He was almost fully awake by now, rejuvenated by the conversation, so he was able to navigate to his (rather poorly parked) car quite easily, with limited stumbling and only one incident where he slammed head-first into a sign. "You know what I just realized?" he said out loud, turning back to Matthew. "Since you can't fly a car across the ocean, you're literally like gonna have your own personal chaperone the entire time you're here. That's frickin' awesome in my opi-" The Prussian was broken off by his own yawn. "Alright then.. don't listen to me talk. Just.. yeah." Fumbling in his pocket for a moment, he pulled out a key, unlocking and opening first the trunk and then the doors. "Just put your stuff into the trunk and we can go.. 'stuff' does not include Kumajiro. He goes in the car. Listen to that. Ahem. Should I really be driving right now?" He laughed a little as he sat in the drivers seat, waiting for Matthew.

Matthew shook his head slightly, attempting not the laugh at the expression on the tired Prussian's face. Honestly he'd never found height to be a big deal given the fact Alfred and their father were both slightly taller than him, despite the fact most people they ran into were a bit shorter. It'd never crossed his mind that Gilbert had been shorter than him. Watching the overly dramatic hand motions he just followed him in silence listening quietly to the small ranting about how apparently being shorter just made his 'awesomeness more dense' however that would work. "I'm glad you think they'll all get along. Dad and Alfred about forced the poor thing to go with me. They still haven't adjusted to the idea of me visiting. Though I really do doubt my accent will get any harsher. It's kinda stuck this soft I think." Resting a hand over his throat slightly he couldn't resist but to laugh faintly under his breath as he watched Gilbert walk and attempt to look just a bit taller.

Every few seconds of them walking though he'd visibly wince as it dawned on him that a half-asleep, though he looked a bit more awake by now, Prussian was about to drive them in a car, down a road, with most likely other people driving on said road. It didn't help that right than about nothing the man was saying made any sense, less sense than it normally did and had rammed into a sign head first instead of ducking. "Yeah… I think I'll be fine walking around instead you know… don't worry about driving…" The male shuddered slightly recalling rumors of the about wreck of manner of driving eastern countries had compared to the western.

Settling his bags into the trunk he opened the back door to let Kumajiro jump in nearly freezing solid jaw falling slightly at the comment, "Now you've got me a bit concerned… Are you really all-right to be driving? I could have gotten a later flight you know. It wasn't like I had to get on the first plane out of Canada." Biting his lip the male paused at the passenger door staring at it in Silence for the longest moment, "Can we not make jokes about poor driving after you parked like this?" Getting in the Canadian buckled his seatbelt almost instantly hiding up his coat slightly just able to see over the fur lined edge on the neck.


	8. Shouldn't Touch Peoples Things

After realizing the video was more than a few minutes long, Gilbert quietly clasped the phone together, disappearing back into his own room before opening it up again. _Leave it here and risk not having time to watch, or ignore whatever's going on downstairs? _He debated with himself. _Nah, this is sure to be more interesting. _When he saw, though, he almost regretted ever touching the phone. By the end, his hand was placed over his mouth in a more than concerned manner, and his eyes were on the brink of tears. The video had shocked him- it shocked him that it existed, and that Matthew hadn't deleted it in the years that must have passed since it was taped, it shocked him that what had happened had ever really happened.

Slipping the door open Alfred remained tucked behind the wooden barrier quietly, leaving just enough room for Matthias to slip in. Trying to catch onto the breath that'd escaped him his chest rose and fell sharply. Despite not having the same breathing issues as Matthew, his constant second guessing running from Matthias had caused many slip-ups in the rain. Overall Alfred was thoroughly soaked to the bone and coated in mud. A expression of panic painted across his face as the door groaned weakly almost being slammed closed before gently rocking back open as a gentle 'thump' could be heard of his weight hitting the floor in the signs of, a bit childish, surrender. "...I'm not officially signed-up?" His voice croaked faintly as the air finally flooded back, sounding a bit hopeful at the fact.

Matthew stumbled up the steps rather tiredly to allow the awkward silence at Kiku's 'why isn't he wearing pants' statement to clear out stretching as he went, mumbling in faint pain over something as he slid into the room closing the door neatly behind him. Gathering the blankets he cast a glance at the sleeping Kumajiro he headed out to knock lightly on the Prussian's door, "Don't worry about coming down Gil. I think Ludwig can handle everything, I'm gonna head back to bed," his voice practically dripped with exhaustion as he headed back to the guest room without even waiting for a answer. Sitting on the bed he hid under the blankets quietly the light beside the bed kicking off. If on focused even in the weak lighting faint scars, even a slightly offset to the nose where his glasses would often slide down, were visible if one stopped to just look and pay attention. Something rather even Alfred seemed, possibly pretended, to ignore completely. A few new ones, even a slight bruise just visible on his neck gave way to a clearly more recent attack.

Blank faced, Gilbert stood from where he sat on his bed, closing the phone. He honestly didn't want Matthew to find that Gilbert had watched the video- he himself wished that he hadn't- but he couldn't let the fact of this event happening go unsaid between the two of them. _Think, Gilbert.. Has he ever mentioned it? Even a little? No.._ He released a slight gasp when a small detail he'd previously let escape his grasp hit him hard in the face. _His face.. There are scars. I guess I brushed it off before.. But that perfect, innocent face of his.. Is painted with scars._ He promptly started out the door, walking straight into Matthew's open one. "Matt.." he murmured, tossing the phone onto the bed and making sure it landed by Matthew's feet. "I.. I saw the video." Considering the impact the footage had on him, Gilbert assumed the Canadian knew what he was talking about.

Matthias sighed as he entered the room after Alfred, looking down at the messy heap of American on the ground. "You're an idiot, you know?" He said finally, flipping down next to him. "I'm not mad at you.. Just a bit shocked. You can join the military if you want to, I guess, but I'd rather you not.. And you didn't have to run like that." He briefly noted that he was almost as much of a mess as Alfred, and with a shrug pushed the door shut. "Don't want a housekeeper getting mad that we basically just ruined the whole hallway along with this floor. You haven't touched your bed- or the wall- or anything, for that matter- yet, have you?"

"What _one_ did you see?" Matthew was quite aware there'd been a good five thirty-minute videos where his phone had gotten a 'front-row' seat to it's owner being beaten, threatened, and even once tortured when both Allen and Mark had been there after cornering him in a alley-way. Flipping the phone open, a bit startled by the Prussian's entrance still he paused with a faint 'oh' at the video still on screen. His fingers poked at the buttons lazily as he violet gaze darted around the room nervously, "I… You shouldn't look through other's things Gil," He shook his head, even raising his finger in a weak scolding manner. "_One_ as in I kept my phone on whenever Mark and Allen were around." Quietly he slid open a drawer a bit of shuffling able to be heard before he walked over holding a photo album to his chest with one arm grabbing Gilbert's wrist, a bit blindly, with the other to lead him to sit on the bed shuffling his feet quietly, "I suppose no stories best left untold right?" Flicking the book open it landed right on the first page with a picture of all four males, though Mat only ever mentioned having Alfred as a sibling. Tapping each in turn he sighed, "Me, Alfred, and Mark and Allen who got disowned after ma's death." Mark, about five, in the picture was, while holding a notably sharp part of a toy that a kid honestly shouldn't have had, glaring daggers at a 1 year old Matthew(who'd shied away to hide behind a giant stuffed polar bear), though Mark was being held safely away from Matthew by a blonde woman who looked to be their mother. Allen and Alfred were sitting beside each a good few away other noticeably tense at not at all at ease while watching their respective twins with slight worry, "It wasn't going to end with us getting along from the start I suppose."

Sliding back as the door was removed Alfred effectively made even more of a mess snorting faintly in laughter at it. The room itself was perfectly clean, in fact shockingly clean except by the door. Casting a glance at their clothes the American gave a slightly broken laugh lungeing up to tackle Matthias into a hug, coated in mud and cold water though not seeming to care instead going straight for bowling the other over, "That was a bit cool! You gotta admit it! Two guys running through Germany with some weirdo playing piano music in the background!" Pulling Matthias close for a hug before moving away, he broke into a fresh bout of laughter, the floor around them and the door effectively soaked and drenched in mud and water.

"I see.." Gilbert muttered, examining the image. Mark and Allen didn't look like the nicest boys ever, and even in this picture where the family was clearly trying to appear happy and composed. And not dysfunctional in a bad way. "You must've been pretty young when this picture was taken, and it looks like you already hated each other.. Did you ever get along?" Sure, there were times when Gilbert didn't get along with Ludwig well, especially when their parents divorced and Ludwig had chosen to go with their mother instead of staying with their father and Gilbert. But after their parents' deaths, they'd had to get along. He couldn't imagine beating his little brother, or having the same done to him. Of course, they were pretty much equal in strength, but that wasn't the point. "I don't really have much to say.. and I assume you don't want sympathy."

The first two thoughts to go through Matthias's head as he was glomped by Alfred were _Yay, I have my favorite idiot back! _and _We're going to ruin this whole perfect room!_ Nonetheless, he hugged back before Alfred separated from him. "Yeah, it was pretty dang awesome! Like something in a movie or a book! I mean, who else is so cool that they get their own dramatic music when they chase their boyfriend down the street, accompanied by Hollywood-style rain?" He grinned at the American. Here they were, two rain-soaked, mud-covered young men sitting on the floor at a fancy hotel, not a care in the world anymore besides this moment. _Can't believe how quickly that turned around,_ Matthias thought, chuckling to himself. "So... Now what?" He actually _didn't _know what. He sure as hell wasn't walking back to his house in this weather, which unfortunately hadn't disappeared as soon as the two made up like it would have in a movie.

"We were one and five… We never got along at all, they both had 'social disorders' as our parents hid behind," Pausing the male pulling his knees close, carelessly letting the photo album tumble to the ground by the bed's edge. Silently he pulled at Kumajiro's fur slightly. For a split second he barely made a noise when the dog slipped off the bed barely taking notice of his owner. It was clear the Canadian had forgotten one fact, the vanishing act had yet to work on Gilbert. His eyes were shut, merely remaining alert to listen for Gilbert moving and leaving. When it didn't happen he cleared his throat weakly, "Just… Drop it I suppose Gil? It seems to make you feel a bit uneasy or well uncomfortable. You can pretend you never saw it like everyone else does. You're drunk, maybe at least a bit hungover or tired so you might not even remember in the morning." Briefly the male moved as though to hug Gilbert before retreating to recover his blankets from the floor and pushing the photo album up under the bed slightly, "It's not like it's important, it's stuff that happened a while back." He didn't want to lie about the attacks being old news, they were still constantly happening, but he could hope Gilbert would walk out of the room. Sure it'd hurt to tell the man to just _forget. _Matthew honestly didn't want to be forgotten by him at all. Though surely one little fact could just slip someone's mind right?

Biting his lip Alfred silenced the laughter heading over to a bag and pulling out two changes of clothing, after wiping his hand off on a towel. "...You wanta go ahead and shower first? Just don't use the hot water up." Setting the clothing in the bathroom Alfred headed for a small kitchen, to raid whatever food he'd find. Of course he'd called early to have a room stocked up a bit but he wasn't sure what was there to actually eat however.

"Social disorders.. Hmmf." Gilbert could hardly express his current emotion in human words. He wasn't going to try; the more plausible (and awesome) solution was to simply repeat the topic a make a sound. He watched disheartenedly as Matthew attempted to vanish into his bed. Finally he cleared his throat. "I'm not going to do that, Matt. Not only would it be totally unawesome of me, it'd make me seem like a pretty big ass and while that may or may not be true I'm stickin' around this time. Whether or not that sounds good to you." It was obvious to him that Matthew was hiding _something,_ keeping at _least _one key detail about this whole calamity to himself. Maybe he wouldn't be able to get said detail out of his friend, but he could try and comfort him in the awkward way that tended to cheer people up at least a little bit. "Gott. Normally I'd compare it to some unawesome thing that happened to me that I solved awesomely, but I can't exactly say I've been in a situation like yours, or even anything as bad.. I can say, though, that I didn't exactly have the greatest childhood either."

With a chuckle, Matthias nodded in agreement. "Alright, I'll do that.. But don't eat up all your food in one night. You need food the whole time you're staying here. Also, I need food. And clothes, for that matter, considering mine are now in the same condition as a use dish rag." He stood from his position on the wet floor, pinpointing the bathroom before he entered. "My hair.. God, Al, I look like a brunette now."

Noticeably Matthew laid down with a faint 'thump' into the bed and sheets watching Gilbert's back quietly. For now he figured it wouldn't hurt to let the albino do what he seemed to do best since the day Matthew first sent him a letter, ramble. Burrowing into the blankets he let his gaze wander over the male despite the fact the lights were still off. Muting a weak giggling noise he shook his head slightly at how the white hair just, stood out. Tucking his head against the pillow he slowly shifted to roll over, making faint noises as the other spoke to indicate he was still listening. He'd stolen away a decent amount of pillows, though remained only sleeping under a thin blanket. Whenever he'd shift to much to over-sized hockey t-shirt he wore would promptly slip off his shoulder slightly to show off the bruises and small cuts that stood out against pale skin like Gilbert in a crowd, shockingly vivid blacks and blues against pale skin. It wasn't as pale as Gilbert's, or was it? The lighting made it hard to tell. Slowly his eyes started to flicker closed his noises stopping slowly as he started to drift off.

Alfred montioned lazily to a pile of clothes for the other male as he wandered in glancing at Matthias in the mirror and raising an eyebrow slowly, "You'd be hot but I prefer you blonde. Never liked brunettes." Wandering back out Alfred setback to his food quest throwing a frozen pizza in the oven. Glancing around he shrugged, sitting in and ruining a perfectly good chair while he began to wait for the shower to be open.

And so Gilbert did exactly what Matthew'd expected, he rambled. About how his parents didn't seem to be arguing until they divorced. About how Ludwig had chosen to move in with their mother instead of their father. He mentioned Ludwig's tale about a crush he had on a beautiful young Italian girl whom he promised he'd come back to after their vacation. He described with the little accuracy he could how, a year later, the four had gotten together to go on said vacation, and the car had crashed. He recalled almost tearfully (_almost,_ he was too awesome for that) how the crash had killed their parents and knocked Ludwig into a coma. He quickly explained that the coma had only lasted two weeks, but when Ludwig awoke he retained almost no memory of his past. Gilbert even told Matthew about how they'd gone to live with their grandfather, who died not a year later, and how with no living relatives the two were admitted into foster care. "We bounced in and out of different homes for a long time.. I think it was at least seven years. For the first few years, I was an angry little brat. Ran away every second chance, whether Ludwig agreed to come with me or not. We weren't the cool rich kids everyone wanted to be friends with any more. No, we were the foster kids, the kids that went to a different school at least every two years." He paused for a moment before adding, more softly, "I think it was the second foster home we were in, the school, when these guys started picking on me. A bunch 'a idiots. I was a weak little brat, back then, though, so I couldn't fight back." Gilbert wasn't sure if he was talking for Matthew's sake or for his own any more. Most of his friends he had now had grown up knowing what had happened to him; the others didn't know at all. It felt pretty.. awesome to just tell it like a story, like something out of a sad book that had never really happened to anyone.

Meanwhile in the hotel, it took Matthias under ten minutes to take a quick shower before he had exited with soaking (almost blond again, the water darkened it still) hair and a borrowed outfit. "Alfred, you messed up the chair," he announced, pointing out the obvious. "Go clean yourself up and I'll _attempt _to clean this up. Ya' know, before the housekeepers come in." It wasn't like they _couldn't _clean it up, in fact, it was their job, but years of pretending to be a well-brought up kid had taught Matthias better manners. He dutifully dug up a cloth from somewhere and soaked it in the sink so he could try and clean off the muddy chair.

Shifting to view the others back Matthew pushed himself up a bit, nearly falling back down in a sleep ridden haze, to wrap his arms around the others shoulders. This served about three purposes in Matthew's blurred thoughts. One was more for the pure means of the faint comfort provided, the other a gentle attempt to try and silence the ongoing chatter Gilbert seemed capable of holding for hours, and the last one was to partially drag himself into a makeshift semi-sitting position behind the other(at least tucking his knees and legs close and leaning into Gilbert's back.). One hand moved to gently cover Gilbert's mouth and mute the noise his words were causing while the other merely laid wrapped around Gilbert's shoulders, "You can chatter on all you want in the morning Gil if you want. I'll listen to every single word you say, I promise. But for right now… it's midnight." Dropping his head to rest against the other's back a loud yawn tore through the quiet Canadian as if to prove the point, his had moving from Gilbert's mouth to grab for his sleeve slightly. Kumajiro laid a few feet away merely glad not to be the on his owner was currently attached to, without showing signs of releasing unless Gilbert move the tall Canadian himself.

Alfred was quick with his shower, seriously only taking a few moments it seemed before darting out to retrieve the pizza and cut it up. He glanced at the chair Matthias was attempting to tidy up before hauling himself onto the counter to watch the scene calmly, "I was thinking about instead of that little house down the road, maybe a cabin?" His mind derailed straight to the Hollywood ending again, though it was always the American's favorite topic involving the Dane, except marriage though he rarely breached the topic instead favoring letting Matthias bring it up.

Gilbert let out a small gasp into Matthew's hand, suddenly very grateful for the low lighting as it, combined with Matthew's sleepiness, helped to conceal the faint red coloring that immediately decorated his face. He'd been in more embarrassing situations, sure, but not with cute Canadians. _There are many in this world. I believe I have a claim to this one. _With a yawn muted by quickly shoving his face into his shoulder, Gilbert decided it was not in his favor to shrug Matthew off of him and return to his own bedroom. He slowly shifted into a more sideways position with the blond still clinging to him like some kind of adorable Canadian koala-baby-creature.

******Basically giving up on ever properly cleaning the chair, Matthias lazily cast the cloth aside and joined Alfred on the countertop. "Always the future with you.. Ya' know what, why not. We can get some picture perfect little cabin somewhere, get a Norwegian Forest Cat to be friends with Tony, and then adopt some child and spoil her to death. A Hollywood ending sounds pretty great to me." He paused. "But I think now is the time to eat pizza. I'm starvin' after all that running. You gotta realize you're in way better shape than me."**


	9. Blackmail

Biting his lip Alfred stopped dead to watch the scene in front of him. He'd left the hotel, leaving the peacefully sleeping Dane a note about him going to see Matthew and now he'd found this. Gilbert curled, a bit awkwardly given the height difference, around the Canadian and Matthew's hands reached up to tangle lightly into Gilbert's head. Pausing he shared a sideways glance with Kiku before both retrieved their phones, well Kiku had a grade-A camera and hosted a tiny photo shoot it seemed, before leaving the two sleeping male's in peace for now. When the finally stumbled into the kitchen it was Kiku cooking wurst, pancakes, and overall a traditional breakfast it seemed, though notably he kept the other males from the wurst in question at the moment. He wasn't blind to it being a favored German meal and the house owner's were German it seemed proper to cook them a meal.

Matthew shifted lazily in his sleep moving a hand from Gilberts neck to cover his eyes quietly. His memories were a bit fuzzy though he showed no issues in leaning back against the other willingly in a search for safety from the impending fact, he had to get up. The bed definitely felt a bit move comfy than normal, and to be honest he didn't want to get up. Moments slipped by before sleep started to reclaim him, only startling awake upon noticing the 'pillow' his back was pressed against was breathing and moving around slightly.

Feliciano paused in watching Kiku cook, soon bouncing upstairs knocking on Ludwig's door. He'd ended up staying over the night and sleeping in a chair. Honestly Feliciano didn't mind Ludwig's dogs, he'd in fact notably snuck into the German's room on plenty of occasion until Ludwig had started making him wait at the door. Instead of barging in like normally the Italian waited almost startlingly calm for the German.

Gilbert shifted again, quietly yawning and muttering something along the lines of "teddy bears are not allowed to move" as he curled more tightly along the almost motionless warm bundle. He blinked slightly when a lock of golden-blond hair fell into his face. _I do not have a blond teddy bear. _Upon forcing his eyes to open, Gilbert discovered that he was indeed awkwardly curled around Matthew Williams, albeit a bit awkwardly due to his height. He briefly debated abandoning the warm, comfortable position to go eat breakfast- he did in fact smell wurst cooking; he and his brother were never the first ones awake in this house any more- but instead just shifted again, closing his eyes to hide the ruby red orbs from the world. He briefly noted how amusing this would be if someone walked into the room. _Five more minuuuuuutes._

Ludwig was having a little less of a hard time getting up, mostly due to the fact that there was a knock to awaken him but also because he was not snuggled up against a certain adorable Italian. Of course, he didn't realize how different his situation was from his brother's and was most likely the only one in this house with that particular state of mind, so he simply stood up, rubbed his eyes and opened the door to his bedroom. Ludwig realized a little too late that his three dogs had been in the room with him all night; they were already halfway down the stairs. "Good morning, Feliciano.. It seems you've woken up before me again. Hmm." His speech was interrupted by another yawn of protest.

Lifting his head Matthew pulled his body free enough to roll over and face the Prussian slightly. Pausing when he heard Feliciano and Ludwig he glanced at the clock before collapsing lazily back into the covers to wrap his arms around Gilbert silently looking around over the others side with a faintly curious gaze, though he rather quickly retreated back to hiding his face with a slight yawn. Maybe it was just too early to wake right then even if the others had already started cooking and waking up fully. Besides he honestly wasn't having a issue with the new sleeping arrangements that'd seem to have taken place during the night, although it was certainly making waking up an issue. Untangling himself from the Prussin he rolled away for a second to stretch before turning to face a new task, waking the 'awesome' Gilbert. Taking a more gentle route than he normally would he reached over to shake the other slightly, "Gil? You need to get up."

Alfred paused casting a glance at the door in a semi-nervous fashion and shuffling his feet uneasily. He sat down quietly unable to silence the sickening thoughts and feelings, it could have just been his reflection but he'd sworn he'd saw Allen on the way there, and where Allen was Mark was sure to be following closely. Heading to the kitchen to make a plate he sat down to try and mute the dark thoughts.

Bouncing once again in place Feliciano clapped his hands, "I waited outside your door this tie like you always ask!" He'd often questioned why Ludwig was so against letting him crawl into the larger German's bed, there seemed to be an issue with the habit that made Ludwig a bit unhappy, though he remained happy and smiling away nonetheless showing no signs of poking at the topic from yesterday nor asking a hundred questions. Instead he turned to practically skip down the steps whistling an old tune.

At the sudden call of Matthew's soft voice, Gilbert blinked again, this time keeping his eyes open. _There are two ways you can respond to this.. Do the awesome way, Gilbert. _"Well, good morning," he greeted, lazily smirking. He really did not want to get up in the slightest. "Are you _sure _you want to drag me away into the kitchen of food and people?" Okay, maybe his argument didn't make much sense.. But he was tired and had just awoken. There wasn't much he could say to make a proper argument. With a sigh, he pushed himself into a sitting position, yawning again. "This is both a good way and a bad way to wake up.." he muttered, looking at Matthew again. "I am suddenly very glad only one of us has a super curious, overbearing, protective sibling.. Let me give you a hint. It's not me." Stretching, he shifted to where his legs were folded underneath him. "Shall we go and greet my brother, your brother and the other people who have inevitably invaded my house?"

Ludwig smiled gently at the Italian's antics; it'd always been easier for him to smile when he was tired and other people weren't staring him down. He followed Felciano down the stairs, more slowly of course, to join him and Kiku in the kitchen. "Whatever it is that you two are making, it smells good," he complimented, tired brain not registering that they were cooking wurst and pancakes yet as he sat down at the circular table. "I wonder when Gilbert and Matthew are coming down.. Idiot brother needs to quit waking up late.." Ludwig didn't exactly have much room to speak, considering he was already slumping over on the table and falling back asleep.

Resting his head down Matthew merely moved to burrow further into the bed with a weak defense of 'but people… exist.' before going limp against the bed. "...What about five more minutes? Or ten?" Instead of bothering to struggle with the words for an half-hearted argument he started to stir and sit-up notably nearly falling over quite a few times looking more drunk than when he'd actually been drunk., "Wake-up and get-up are two highly different things, I should have just said time to wake-up." Searching for his phone the Canadian pulled out the old fashioned flip-phone rubbing his eyes and stretching, "We should head to go eat though. I guess Alfred sent a text, says we have to talk. It actually says all of us… I don't know if this sounds to good… Oh god… Al's here- He and Kiku-" Suddenly the Canadian was bolting downstairs rather startled, and clearly very awake.

Feliciano grabbed a plate of food setting it in front of Ludwig with an amused expression, "You're still half asleep and complaining about Gilbert not getting up? He wasn't even in his room Ludwig, Come to think of it Matthew was suppose to join us about an hour ago-" He cut off to watch the Canadian bolt through the room trying to get at Kiku's Camera shouting something about 'accursed cameras' and the Japanese male having some obsession with taking pictures of couples. As though the prove the point Kiku snapped a picture of Ludwig and Feliciano before moving the Camera out of the Canadian's reach. Alfred glanced up to break into a bout of laughter at the scene shaking slightly, he was well aware the scene would happen again in a heart-beat if Gilbert merely even just climbed into the bed but the fact there were pictures of Matthew and Gilbert that looked like lord knows what cause a issue in Matt's mind, though the underlying worried expression remained in place on Alfred's face as he stood up.

"Guys! There something important to discuss!"

"People do that.. that stupid existing thing.." Gilbert muttered, pouting when Matthew was suddenly racing out of the room and down the staircase. "Buuuut.. oh, fine." With a sigh the albino kicked his legs off the side of the bed- wincing when he realized they'd fallen asleep from being sat on and he now had pins and needles in his feet- and trudged, more slowly, out of the room. "They're being pretty loud down there.. I wonder what's going on." Despite his curiosity, Gilbert made his way down the stairs at a leisurely pace, not bothering to hurry like Matthew had. _Whatever it is, it can't be _that _important. I mean, what is it? Eight, nine o'clock? _"Mooorrrninngg," he drawled loudly as he entered the kitchen. His face lit with surprise to see everyone gathered around the table like a very unorganized council of some sort. "Soo. Uh. Morning. What did I miss?"

Ludwig, now pretty much fully awake, lifted his head to greet his brother. "Good morning, Gilbert. You missed a camera battle, me being asleep, und Matthew running a marathon. So.. nothing much." The German man shrugged as he finished, picking up his fork so he could start on the breakfast Feliciano had delivered to him. "So what's so important that we're gathered so.. neatly as this?" Gilbert asked, taking a seat graciously on _top _of the table instead of in an open chair. "I'm not even going to bother asking why Alfred, Feliciano and.. uh.."

"Kiku," Ludwig finished for him.

"Yeah. Why Alfred, Feliciano and Kiku are here. Seems for the last week random people have been showing up in our house before either of us could wake up without any warning whatsoever, but it doesn't really matter, I mean, we get breakfast. Speaking of, I wonder if Ma-"

"Alfred F Jones!"

Gilbert smiled, shaking his head as the blond man entered the house (without knocking, of course; no one ever knocked on the door of the Beilschmidt residence any more). "First you run off in the rain.. and then you leave me at that hotel. You're gonna have to make up for this, you know that?" Matthias continued, stepping loudly (yes, you can step loudly; it was more of a grand entrance than anything else) into the kitchen. "Woah, everyone's here, what the heck.. and long time no see, Kiku."

Alfred visibly winced at the yell, "I said we'd go to dinner tonight!" Setting a plate down he headed over to steer the Dane to a chair and place a plate of food (Also notably a lot of food, Alfred always seemed thoroughly convinced Matthias didn't eat enough for some reason,). "This was a bit more important than cuddling in bed all morning. Or else I wouldn't have left the hotel after talking to Feliks… Man he can talk about boots," Alfred nearly snorted when Matthew uttered a faint 'aboot', "And well Mattie is mad because Kiku has a bad habit of taking pictures of unsuspecting couples… You two were rather… I guess cute this morning but god. That height difference." As if to prove Alfred's point Kiku pulled the picture up on his camera to show them. "Anyways onto the matter at hand guys. Our siblings, Mark and Allen not Maddie and Amelia, followed Matthew to Germany. I think they hijacked a plane." Pausing when he noticed both Matthew and Kiku go about as pale as sheets he allowed a second for the information to silently settle frowning slightly at the fast you could practically see the fear in his brother's eyes, hell it was visible in Alfred's, "Both males look like me and Mattie but… Colder? I-" He froze hearing people coming down the steps turning to face the four dogs in the house, "You had one job. And you failed."

"Because Kuma dear is scared of Mark after what happened at the river." The words came from a near look-a-like of Alfred, only red haired and a bit darker skinned, as he entered the kitchen holding his hands up to 'innocently' show he had no weapons, "Why are you telling lies about your older brothers Alfie dear? It wounds me to know you think that little of us." Mark almost seemed to melt out from the light behind Allen winding his way lazily around the taller to stand in front of him slightly. Despite the notable cold air the smiles on the two's faces seemed to bring the only other difference between Matthew and Mark was a lack of scars. After a moment Allen ducked his head to peer over the sunglasses two red eyes very visible.

Gilbert was probably not the best person to become suddenly incredibly protective at that moment. Other than Feliciano and Kiku, he was the shortest man in the room, not to mention he had just woken up. However, neither fact stopped him from approaching the two cold-looking males (he was, in fact, soon joined by Matthias; overprotective boyfriends for the win). It seemed to be a silent staring contest that no one wanted to break, Gilbert glaring straight into the other pair of red eyes despite the glasses that shielded them from his vision and the natural blurring of everything around him (he really did need to remember to put his contacts in). He wasn't exactly intimidating, considering the fact that he literally had to tilt his head back to look into Allen's face, but he could at least be given the 'you tried' award. Matthias, on the other hand, was able to look almost directly at the two, give or take a few inches. He felt sorry for his friend, he really did, but he was not going to buy the Prussian high heeled boots at any point in the near future. Not to mention that if he really wanted them, Gilbert could buy boots for himself.

"Alright. What are you- and you-" he had to look at each in turn, unable to see them both at the same time when he was in this close range- "doing here? We're accustomed to people spontaneously breaking into our house every morning, but the rules are that you A: are not a creepy scary bloodthirsty brother, B: come in before me and Ludwig wake up, and C: make breakfast. I mean, why do you think I haven't gotten mad at Feliciano and K.. Karl.. Kasey.. Kael.. Kai.. Kika.."

"Kiku, Gilbert, his name is Kiku."

******"****Yeah! Why haven't I gotten mad at Feliciano and Kiku yet? That's right. They followed the rules. They aren't out to injure anyone, came in before I got up, made breakfast and aren't taller than me. Oh, crap, I said that last part out loud didn't I.." A small 'thump' of a facepalm could be heard from Ludwig's seat he still held in the kitchen. **


End file.
